Shark in the Water
by BeautifulyBlue
Summary: School's back in and Joe's hoping to spark romance between him and Alice. Charles and Cary befriend weird new kid in town Richard, who's hiding an unspeakable secret. Martin and Preston are determined to become popular... But how far will they go?
1. Starting Over

**BeautifulyBlue: READ DESCRIPTION OF THE STORY FIRST! This takes place 2 months after the events of "Super 8" when school restarts. First chapter, sorry if it's a little slow. But please review!**

Joe biked down the empty streets of Lillian. The cool weather and the color change of the leaves was a sign that summer was ending, and 2 glorious days of summer left until he entered high school. He'd heard some pretty intense stories of that school…the one that scared him most was that seniors threw freshmen into trashcans. Orientation was a week and a half ago, the moment he and the gang stepped through the doors, all they saw were crowds of giant people. He was happy with his schedule, a class with Charles here, another with Cary there,

Then homeroom with Alice.

He hadn't talked to Alice in a while, he didn't catch her at orientation but there was no doubt he'd see her at school. Although the feud between his dad and hers was over, that didn't necessarily mean they were buddy-buddy.

He biked past Charles' house, meaning his own would be around the corner. He lived in a small neighborhood. When he said everyone knew everyone, he meant it. When he pulled up his dad's car was gone…meaning he'd have to scrounge his own food to eat. His chocolate Labrador Lucy immediately hopped off the couch to greet him,

"Hey Lucy," he petted her head, then he noticed the calendar on the fridge was way off. He marked off the last two weeks, then he noticed the date, August 22 was circled. It was too close to that days date for his liking. The one thing he hoped was he could start fresh this year, as if nothing happened…at all.

When he biked to school two days later, he squeezed his way inside of the freshman building. Hallways scrambled with 'excited' students, he looked around hoping to find someone he knew, then an unbelievably loud voice called,

"JOSEPH LAMB!"

It was Cary, he had just walked in through the main doors. Joe smiled, "Hey. Have you se-"

Cary grabbed his shoulders, he was always dramatic on the first days of school, "Why is no one here? If Charles doesn't get his butt over here, I'm going to have to skip first hour ALONE!"

"Why would you skip? It's your first da-"

"Don't you remember? The tradition?"

Joe smirked nodding, Cary's brother (who was currently a junior) Nathan skipped his first class on _his _first day of high school. Before that it was their cousin, their uncle…and their father. Cary was _never _one to break tradition. Cary could see Charles looking at his schedule then around the hallways confused, he immediately ran,

"Bye Joe! CHARLES!"

Joe grabbed Cary's bag, "Wait! Have you seen Alice?" Cary turned at him, an unsurprised look,

"Really Joe?"

Joe laughed, letting go. His true intention was to walk with her to homeroom, but there was no sign of her even when the first bell rang. He started to walk to his new locker, putting a few unneeded items inside to get rid of some weight in his bag. He stood there waiting to see if she'd pass by some more. He began to remember that Alice mentioned living close by to the high school and he figured she'd be sitting in home room by now. When he arrived there were a few other classmates he had known for a while sitting at various desks. Then there was Alice, supposedly starting on the morning assignment written on the board. He took a second to himself and worked up the gut,

"Hey, Alice."

She looked up, moving her bangs out of her eyes, "Hey Joe." she smiled. He sat in the desk next to hers, he looked at the board. With English as their first hour, the warm up was to write seven pros and seven cons about themselves. Joe thought that was somewhat petty, but took out a sheet of paper anyway. He kept looking at her every few seconds, hoping to have small talk before everyone got to class,

"So…how was the rest of your summer- after we made the movie I mean."

She smiled, "Good. My dad and I went to Sanibel."

"Down in Florida?"

She nodded, Joe's eyes widened, he heard how irrevocably hot it was. That would explain why Alice's pale skin was turned golden. He heard the door slam and a tall woman with pale skin and poodle-like red hair walked in,

"Hello, welcome to the 9th grade, for starters we'll be sharing what you wrote on today's warm up-"

Joe leaned over to Alice, "I-I'm glad that we got a class together." he whispered as sincerely as possible. Alice smiled, she pushed her hair behind her ears as it kept falling in her face,

"Me to."

The second bell rang.

Martin and Preston were placed in the AP classes. They'd be together for yet _another_ year. They sat bored in their Algebra class, ready for it to be the end of the year even though it had just begun. Preston tapped Martin's arm who had his head down,

"Hey, why aren't you copying the notes?"

Martin looked at him like he had woken him from his nap, "We learned this in 1st grade Preston, and I didn't get to sleep in this morning." Preston smirked,

"Back to school blues get you already?"

"Is there anything you'd like to share with the class…Preston?"

He smiled nervously, "No sir. My friend here just asked me a question."

Martin had then sat up in his desk, he leaned over whispering to Preston, "Listen, we need to talk after class."

Preston raised a brow, "About what?"

"What are you two going on about now?" The entire class turned to them once again, Martin talked this time,

"How…interesting, this lesson was…sir."

The teacher folded his arms, "Once more word and detention for the both of you."

They both put their heads into their binders, "Yes sir."

While Charles and Cary _should _be in their P.E. class, they were out in the hallways, Cary continuing the family tradition as he should, getting a soda from a machine.

"Cary, please remind me as to why I agreed skipping first class with you?"

Cary smiled, "Because you're a great friend?" He was horrible at sucking up. The machine spit out his dollar for the fifth time and he finally pounded it with his fist, the bang echoed down the halls.

"C'mon man! Don't do that what if we get caught?"

The soda finally fell, _and _Cary kept his dollar, he looked at Charles, "You really think we're gonna get caught?" he sipped it nonchalantly,

"If you keep making all that noise-" Cary held a hand up, an expression of boredom and pointed to the security camera down the hall, he looked back at Charles,

"I think if the staff cared, we would've gotten caught by now." Cary smiled and waved at the camera. He heard an aggravated sigh from Charles.

Then they heard a door from down the hall open.

"Oh shit!"

The two ran down to the end of the hall and hid behind the wall. They could hear multiple footsteps and Cary elbowed Charles, "You check it out." He peeked out to see a woman, and a teenager around their age, he looked normal enough. It was apparent he was a student with the pass in his hand.

"It's just a guy and his mom." They stepped out, Cary got a good look at the boy, glasses, longish hair with a beanie, regular jacket and jeans. He looked at them from down the hall just before disappearing.

"Well that was interesting." Cary sipped his soda more, Charles looked at him, remembering he was broke,

"I want some."

"No way, I paid for it." Cary started backing away, holding the can as far away from Charles as his arms could.

He made a grab for it but failed "_Paid_? It spit your money out!"

They were circling around the hallway, "Well… I got my dollar crumbled up for it!"

15 minutes later the bell rang and homeroom was over, Joe caught Alice before she left the room, "So, where's your locker?" she walked about an inch down the hallway,

"Right here." she giggled. Joe watched as she turned the dial,

"So uh, our film, it won 2nd place." Alice had left to Sanibel before they got the results of the film festival.

She looked up, "Really? That's great!" she grabbed a binder from her locker. Joe just stood there, not sure what else to say,

"Yeah…but uh listen, I was wondering…maybe you'd…like to hang out this week?"

Alice's smile faded, "Oh…well, I don't know." she tucked her binder under her arm, "I mean I'd love to, it's just I don't know if I'm busy or-"

"Oh no! It's fine." Joe was able to keep the smile, albeit disappointed. "Just let me know as soon as you can." Alice smiled back and he walked off. However once he was gone, Alice lost her smile completely.

Cary and Charles had Earth/Space Science next, when they stepped in the class, Cary tossed his empty soda can, "You know…the tradition wasn't as…_awesome _as I thought it was gonna be." he remarked, emphasizing 'awesome'. Charles rolled his eyes,

"Bummer."

They stopped through the door, they saw someone quite familiar at one of the desks. Glasses, longish hair, beanie…

"Charles, isn't that the guy we saw in the hall-"

Charles shushed him, he wanted absolutely no hint that they skipped. The kid looked up at them, he was actually much creepier up close than a few feet apart. Pale skin and emerald eyes with no expression. He looked more ghostly than he did human. He looked back into his book.

Cary and Charles sat down, "Do you know him?" Charles nodded,

"Nope."

As if all that wasn't creepy enough, Charles looked at the kid again to realize he was staring at them again. However the moment Charles looked at him the kid's head shot down into his book again. The two got an uneasy feeling as the second bell rang.

Preston and Martin were assigned a group paper on "Meiosis vs. Mitosis". As Preston tried to read through the book Martin kept talking on and on,

"I've been telling you Preston, high school is supposed to be _our _year, the year that we shine?"

Preston held back a laugh, writing down a few notes, "The year that we shine? More like competition for valedictorian."

As much as Preston hated it himself, he and Martin weren't exactly 'popular' material; they didn't have the guts to skip, and were clueless when it came to girls. If they were lucky, they'd get the attention of a 6 year old girl. And they couldn't even do _that_.

"I'm tired of being stuck in the academics corner."

Preston looked up, he snorted, "Academics corner? You mean the people who have a higher chance of a successful life?"

"You get what I mean? I'm tired of being…a nerd."

Preston still had an entertained smirk, albeit an offended look in his eyes, Martin waved a hand,

"You get what I mean."

Preston continued to laugh, "Well look," he put his pencil down, "We've got our own little group; you, me, Joe, Charles and Cary. Isn't that enough?" Martin sighed, he got Preston's point. It was the sheer fact that they didn't have a shot that bothered him.

"I guess so."

Preston patted his shoulder, "Good, now can we finish our assignment _before _its due?"

Martin laughed and opened up his text book.

In Cary and Charles' class, Ms. Yingst walked around calling attendance,

"Jodi Merchant?"

"Here!"

Charles kept peeking back at the boy as Cary doodled firework patterns in his journal.

"Charles Cusack?"

Charles raised his hand, "Right here miss." she checked his name. As she called other students Charles tapped Cary's arm,

"That kid's creeping me out." he whispered.

Cary was to focused on his drawing, to truly pay attention to the conversation "Why is that?"

"Look at him! His eyes are like…dead-"

"Cary Scott?"

Cary raised his hand, "Here!" going almost directly back into his drawing.

"But I'm serious, he keeps staring at me, like he's gonna kill-"

"Richard Alexis?"

Richard Alexis? Never in all the years of knowing everyone's name by heart had they heard that. The two, along with the rest of the class looked at the kid. He looked at all of the other kids before raising his hand,

"Here." he muttered in the weakest voice possible. Yingst looked at him and checked his name off.

How did he not creep her out?

Then again…creepy teacher, creepy kid. Made enough sense. While the rest of the class went back to chatting and chewing their gum, Charles and Cary were the last to turn away.

Cary whispered, "I think his name's Richard."

"No shit, I guess he's new in town."

"Well…that doesn't explain why he keeps staring at us." Cary was still creeped out, peering over Charles's shoulder to see if Richard was looking again. Not this time.

Then Charles had it, "Maybe he thinks we're bad kids."

Cary winced in confusion, "What?"

"Think about it, he saw us skipping. Maybe he's one of those goody two shoes people who can't stand kids who do that-."

"Your being paranoid Charles." he went to outline the details of his drawing. Charles finally shrugged it off and began copying the notes that she was writing on the board.

-X-

At 1:45 the students walked to the cafeteria for lunch. The 9th graders all ate lunch together as Joe searched for the rest of his group. He found them at a table by the a window, they were already sharing their day so far, with the exception of Martin who was copying a few extra notes he missed from Preston and Cary who was playing his electronic football. He dropped his bag sitting down,

Preston lifted his apple, as a joke to greet his presence "And we have Joe!" Joe was about to talk until Preston continued, "Please tell me you have a normal story 'cause I cant listen to this guy anymore." he said eyeing Charles.

"I don't really have anything to talk about."

Preston sighed in relief, "Thank god!"

Martin finally put the binder down, "Oh my god. I hate AP."

Charles leaned across the table, "Joe! We've got, the creepiest kid in our science class," as he continued to talk, Joe eyed Alice with some of her girlfriends sitting at a table together, he looked at her laughing with her friend for a second before turning back to Charles,

"Sorry what?"

He sighed in frustration, "Never mind."

Cary finally put spoke, "Can you drop it Charles and shut up so I can win this…," he lifted his head up, "Oh hey Joe."

He tried his hardest not to laugh, "Hey… Cary."

Martin was done putting his binder away, he saw something on the other side of the cafeteria. Someone vaguely familiar, "Preston," he pointed to them, "Who does that look like to you?"

He turned around, "Holy shit! That's David Veach!"

Cary was half-listening back into his game, "The nerd?"

"Not anymore!"

David Veach was a geeky computer nerd for as long as the groups known him. Big hair, large glasses and he's had braces since fourth grade. But what they were seeing now was an attractive, and now apparently popular young man. He was sitting with a couple of well-known jocks and next to him, a blond, leggy girl wearing a tank top with her stomach hanging out.

Martin and Preston stared in wonder while the others didn't give much, "How the hell does he go from cyber dork to football jock over _one _summer?"

Martin suddenly smirked, "I'd like to find out." Preston didn't like that, he stopped him from standing up,

"Dude, forget it, he probably still hates us for bashing him in the 6th grade." He pulled Martin back down into his seat. While Preston went to eat his lunch, Martin was planning to get some 'advice' from this guy.

Charles tapped Cary's arm. He would not move at all completely focused on his game, he smacked it, "Ow!-"

"Look."

Richard was sitting at the detention table. At orientation, they learned it was only for kids who receive in-school suspension. How does one get in-school suspension on the first day? Creepiest part, he was all alone with the exception of one of the security guards.

"Why is at the I.S. table?"

Charles gave him a frustrated look, "Why would I know that?…why is there a policeman with him?"

Cary shrugged, "Hope he has fun with that." the beeping of his game was getting on Charles' nerves, he made a grab for it,

"Will you turn that off?" Cary held it far away as possible. Scooting aside,

"No!"

"That thing is annoying-"

"I'm so close to beating my own score!" They fought for it as Joe laughed.

"_Lunch and a show…"_

After the two more hours left of school, the hallways crowded with kids eager to get home and back in bed, Joe found himself lucky and caught Alice by her locker, she was the first to greet him,

"Hey." she was grabbing her English textbook for their home assignment,

Small talk! He thought, small talk!

"You missed a funny show today at lunch. Cary and Charles had a fight over an electronic football."

She laughed, "Wish I could've been there, my friend Madison begged me to sit with her."

Joe smiled, "It's cool…hey,"

"This Friday, the five of us are planning a 'we survived the first week of high school' bonfire at my house and…maybe you'd like to come?" her smiled faded again, which was starting to bother him,

"Well…I don't know." the hallways were getting emptier as she stood there for a while, "My dad's…been having some problems lately ever since…you know."

"Yeah…" Joe scratched the back of his head.

"And a summer away didn't help much…I want to be there for him as much as I can."

He nodded, "It's fine. I understand."

She smiled and she turned to walk away, "If you need anything…let me know!" he called. She nodded and walked down the hall. Joe was a little disappointed…after everything he'd thought her father would recover. But all this time in his gut he felt he'd get worse.

Preston and Martin's class were the last to be released and they exited the freshman building,

"That was the longest first day I've ever had. If every days going to be this long please kill me now." he realized Martin wasn't paying attention, over on the other side of campus he saw David talking to the same jocks they saw earlier.

"Martin. Forget it. There's no way he's gonna talk to us." then he saw his 'I have an idea' smirk.

"Lets see." he left Preston standing at the steps and walked over. After watching them chat for a second or two, Martin waved him over. Much to his surprise. When he walked over he realized how much the jocks towered over him.

"Preston," David spoke, "I haven't seen you since 6th grade when you called me a nerd."

Preston gulped, "Sorry about that." good move…

Martin looked up at him, "But that's all in the past. Right Dave?"

Dave?

He saw a smile, which Preston found highly suspicious, "Right…" he shoved Martin towards Preston, "You know since it's 'all in the past' why don't you two get us sodas?"

Preston didn't say anything, but Martin couldn't keep his mouth shut, "Sure!"

As he went toward the vending machine, he grabbed Martin's arm "What? We are?"

Martin whispered, "Yes!" he gritted through his teeth in hopes they wouldn't hear him. Preston smiled at the jocks awkwardly before running after Martin,

"You see? I told you he still hates us."

Martin didn't listen as he shoved a dollar into the machine,

"Are you listening?"

"Can you lend me another dollar?" he expectedly held a hand out. Preston just stared in confusion and handed him a five.

"Thanks."

Charles and Cary were grabbing their bikes, "I still can't get over that kid. It's creeping me out."

"Can we stop talking about it Charles?" he grunted as he struggled to unhook the chain on his bike.

"And he's going to school with us for the next four years! I'd at least like to know _why _he had to sit with a security-"

"Why'd you two skip?" Their heads flinched at the sudden voice to see Richard. The two looked at each other and Cary stepped up,

"Why do you care?" not very intimidating due the fact Richard towered over _him_.

"Because I want to know." he replied as simply as possible.

Cary and Charles stood there not respondent. This kid was weirder than they thought. Since Cary was so 'brave' Charles pushed him closer,

"Tell him Cary."

"'Cause…there's a tradition in my family. Every guy skips his first class on his first day of high school." After an awkward stare down between the two, Richard spoke,

"Weird."

_He_ was calling _Cary _weird? Charles stepped up, "We have a question to."

Cary shuddered, "We do?"

"Yeah," he pushed Cary back a bit, "Why were you at the I.S. table?"

Richard stood there for another five seconds, "Because my mom says I'm not aloud to interact with anyone."

The two were confused, "What?"

"My mom doesn't want me getting 'close' to anyone so I have to…sit alone at lunch."

The two felt bad for him. It was only a kid who wasn't aloud to have a social life. Apparently this was his way of having a 'conversation'.

Charles looked down in sympathy, "Oh…we're sorry."

Richard nodded about to walk away. Cary called him,

"Hey! R-Richard!" he forgot his name for a second, "We're getting milkshakes after school tomorrow. Maybe you can come?"

Richard turned around, touched, "Sure." then he walked off.

The two felt good inside for a second…then they lost the feeling.

"Cary…"

"Charles?"

"Why did you do that?"

Cary shrugged. After Cary finally unhooked his bike, they went home.


	2. Suspicion

Alice dangled her pencil in her hand as she sat at her desk, staring at the textbook. First day and she was piled down with homework. That's what she got for being placed in the honors classes. She could hear the television from downstairs loud and clear, making it more difficult to concentrate.

"Dad!" she called,

"Dad! Can you turn that down please?"

No change. She stood up and walked downstairs, she peeked around the wall that led into the living room, "Dad?"

Louis was laying on the couch as usual, sadly for Alice, she wasn't surprised to see a "Blue Moon" in his hand, "Yes?"

"Could you turn that down? I'm trying to do my homework." He sat up,

"I'm sorry I'm sorry." he turned it down until she could barely hear it.

"Thanks." she turned away, but then she walked into the living room and sat on the coffee table in front of him, she grabbed the bottle from him, "You promised you'd stop drinking."

He leaned forward, "I know."

"Then what's with this?" she waved it in front of him,

"I needed it…rough day."

Needed? Ha…Alice hated it when he claimed he 'needed' drinks. How could anyone drink alcohol anyway? Let alone enjoy it? On New Years Eve when she was 10 for good luck, Louis let her try a sip of champagne. Afterwards, Alice found herself chugging down iced tea for hours to get the bitter taste out her mouth. She stood up,

"No you don't." she tossed it in the trash, "I'm doing this to help you!"

"Ali I know!…but after seeing an _alien _kidnap my daughter I think I could use a little drink."

That was his excuse every time, Alice was starting to get sick of it. She opened up the fridge, there were about 3 more. She grabbed them all in one hand and dumped them in the sink one by one before tossing the bottles. She proceeded to sit back on the coffee table,

"Dad…you don't need to drink to deal with problems."

She straightened her posture out, "You don't see anyone else drinking after what happened do you?" she commented in hopes of getting something through to him even though she knew it wouldn't work.

Alice insisted they go to Sanibel in hopes of getting his mind off of everything that had happened. It worked for the week they were gone but once they got home, the first thing he noticed was the huge crater left in the ground where the water tower once was. She had this talk almost every night since.

Louis sat their answerless. After a few seconds of looking at each other Alice stood up, "I'm gonna finish my homework." she walked up the first few steps,

"I love you Ali."

She stopped, peering over the wall, "I love you to."

The next day, since they lived directly next door, Preston planned to walk to school with Martin. He wasn't there much to his surprise and walked by himself. He had just made it to the steps of the freshman building then on the side, he saw Martin with David. He watched them talk; David seemed in intrigued and Martin somewhat cocky.

"Martin!"

He turned his head and signaled him he was coming in a second…he sat there and waited for 10 minutes until Martin finally came running up,

"What was that about?"

He shrugged, "Dave just wanted to have a before-school chat."

Preston still had that suspicious look, "And what was this chat about?"

He waved a hand, "That doesn't really matter but get this; he wants us to sit with him at lunch!"

Preston raised a brow, "He wants _us _to sit with _him_?"

Martin nodded, "Yeah! How cool is that?"

The first bell rang, "Let's just get to class…" he walked in the building with a now suspicious Martin behind him.

Charles was with Cary who was trying to pry his locker open as the lock broke. "I still can't believe you invited him to have milkshakes after school…" Cary began shaking the lock in irritation,

"Well, I apologize for trying to be nice."

"I'm not saying what you did was bad, but we don't even _know _this guy; for all we know his mom could be one of those anti-social psychos."

Cary was about to scream at his lock until he turned to Charles, "By the way Richard described it that would be a positive _maybe_." he turned the lock again. No dice.

"Maybe we should say we're not going. For all we know he could be plotting to murder us behind the diner."

"Yes Charles 'cause many people love killing other people behind cheerful diners-" he finally lost his temper with the lock.

"OH MY GOD! OPEN YOU STUPID-" he started pounding the lock against the door as students stared.

Suddenly, this kid walked up, a confused look, "What are you doing?" Cary stopped,

"This is my locker…"

He nodded, "No…this is mine."

Cary let go of the lock, he stepped one more to the side and entered his combination, the lock came loose, "…oh."

Charles laughed as Cary looked away in embarrassment. He opened his locker; On the top shelf were piles of fireworks.

Charles wasn't surprised, "Really?"

Cary grabbed his P.E. uniform out of it, "What? Just in the principal decides to blow up the school I'm prepared."

The second bell rang and Joe had just walked into his homeroom. Alice was sitting their already starting the journal entry for the day.

"Hey." he sat down,

"Hi."

He looked on the board and began to get his binder out for the class. She kept glancing at Joe every few seconds.

Her and her dad had a talk that morning about if she can trust him or not. She scolded him how every night she finds fresh bottles of beer in the fridge and has to dump them all. After he insisted he could stop, She thought to herself, if she doesn't find anymore beers in the fridge or anywhere for the rest of the week, her dad will have won her trust… but she felt she couldn't do it alone.

She tore of a corner of her sheet of paper and wrote a little note. As the teacher walked in, she held it out underneath Joe's desk.

It read,

_Can we talk at lunch? I need your help._

When Joe looked up, he saw Alice looking at him, he nodded a yes. She smiled and turned her attention to the teacher. Joe smiled to himself, even though it was to help with a problem, he'd be spending some time with Alice.

When the hour was over Martin and Preston began walking to their next class as Martin continuously blabbed on and on about David's invite;

"And so after that he asked me if I wanted to meet a couple of the jocks and of course I couldn't refuse tha-"

"Martin! Ok. I get it. He invited you to sit with him. That's cool."

"But here's the best part. He said you should come to."

Preston stopped walking, "What?"

Martin nodded excitedly as Preston began to think…

"What is it?"

"That's not right…"

Martin shrugged, "Who cares? We just might-"

"Martin, I'm sitting with Joe and them. And I think you should to. He's planning something I know it."

Martin rolled his eyes, "God when are you gonna stop playing Sherlock Holmes and come to?" he walked past him and to their next class. Preston followed, now hurt.

Ms. Yingst walked around class handing out worksheets, "Today in class you will be using you textbooks to fill in the blank spots in groups _no more _than three." Cary and Charles scooted their desks closer while every one else in the class piled their desks in one corner. Richard was sitting their alone, grabbing his textbook from underneath his desk, Yingst walked over;

"Richard…why don't you work with…" she looked around the class, "Cary and Charles?" he hesitated to stand up, but gathered all of his things and walked over,

"Hey guys, Yingst said since your less than three; I should work here."

Cary was writing their names on the paper, leaving Charles to talk, "Um, ok."

He grabbed an empty desk, pushing it so he was right in front of the two. Cary read through the chapter,

"Igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks; ooh…_so challenging_." he remarked with his usual sarcasm. As the twp began jotting down the facts Richard stood there, the dull look in his eyes made them somewhat uncomfortable…especially with the way he was looking at them. Charles paused on a sentence, he realized he had been just sitting there and staring the whole time;

"You know…you can help if you want." Richard then came out of his little trance;

"Sorry what?"

Charles looked at him confused; Cary snickered, "Where have you been this entire time wonderland?"

Richard side-smiled, meaning he _did _have a sense of humor. Charles sighed and looked at the paper, "How much do we have left?"

Cary flipped over the paper, "Like…10 more questions."

Charles looked at the clock, "And we have five more minutes, woop dee doo."

"Stop being pessimistic and help me _find _the answers." he scanned the book for the matching sentence. Richard looked at the blank question then leaned forward,

"Oh, it's right there." he pointed halfway down the page Cary was on. He rapidly mumbled the words to himself before looking back at the paper,

"Your right…how'd you know that?"

"Oh, this was my textbook from last year. We had to review that chapter at last year."

Cary looked at him both amazed and confused, "You took Earth, Space Science last year?"

"Well…yeah…erm, actually," he scratched the back of his neck, "This is my second time in 9th grade…"

Their eyes widened, "You serious?"

Richard nodded, he clicked his tongue, "Yup."

Charles now had to know, "Did you…fail out or some-"

"Look!" he slammed his pencil down on the table, "I'd rather not talk about it."

Charles and Cary gave each other weird looks before eyeing Richard, Cary threw in a nervous laugh, "Ok jeez, no need to go hulk on us." the nervous laugh sounded obviously forced. Richard looked down and the two felt knots in their stomachs.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

At lunch, Joe and Alice were sitting at a small round table by themselves, she explained the deal with her dad.

"So in order to get back my trust, I can't find any beer anywhere in the house at all for a week!"

Joe nodded, intrigued but confused at the same time, "So wait, why are you asking me for help?"

She leaned back in her chair a little, "You see…sometimes he cheats and goes to bars and since I'm not aloud of the house alone…maybe sometimes you can bike by and tell me if you see him or anything?"

She seemed hopeful that he would agree, and really, how could he turn down something as important to her as that?

"I'll do it. I'll bike around that corner bar every night and watch for him until curfew."

Alice smiled, she leaned across the table and hugged him, "Thank you so much." he patted her back, smiling,

"It's no problem…really."

Martin and Preston were sitting alone at another table, Preston was trying to eat his sandwich but Martin was _still _talking about David.

"You know right now, we could be having the time of our lives but instead, you insist we stay in our little group for eternity."

He swallowed, "I didn't say that. I said we can make _other_ new friends."

Martin folded his arms, Preston nodded,

"You know…ones that _won't_ take advantage of us."

Martin sighed, "What happened to the positive Preston?"

"He's _trying _to give positive advice to his friend."

Martin grew more irritated as he looked at the jocks over on the other side of the cafeteria. Preston leaned in,

"Martin! Those aren't our friends."

He sat back in his chair, Martin didn't respond as Preston awkwardly stared back and forth between him and the table for the rest of the lunch period.

Two hours later, they were both leaving the building when David caught the two of them,

"Where the hell were you two today?"

Martin spoke up, "I'm sorry, my friend here got wrecked in gym class and…needed help getting to the nurses office." he lied. Preston stood there, not following along,

"Where did he get hurt?" he didn't seem to buy it.

Preston suddenly got a spark, "My ankle…I twisted it but its fine now."

Martin nodded…desperate he would believe it. David stood there.

"Alright…wanna try that again?"

Preston laughed, caught, "What do you mea-"

"You two chickened out right?"

Martin stepped up, "Look, lets try again? And if we don't show, you can beat us up as much as you want. Deal?"

"_WHAT THE FUCK MARTIN?" _Preston wanted to punch him in the back of the head right then. David smirked and held out a hand,

"Deal."

They shook as Preston looked in fright. After David walked off, Preston smacked Martin's back,

"What was that for-"

"Do you know what you just did? Now we HAVE to sit with them!"

"And what's so bad about that?"

Preston exhaled, aggravated, Martin laughed,

"Do you want to be popular or not?" he playfully punched his shoulder, "They say smart girls like jocks."

Preston walked away, leaving a confused Martin on the main steps.

Cary, Charles and Richard were sitting at a booth in the diner waiting for the waitress to call their number. Cary sat on one side alone while Richard was with Charles.

"So how does this work?"

"We order our food, which we did, and when they call our number we pick it up and chow down."

Richard nodded, Charles sat there uncomfortably. Cary put his head down looking out the window,

"I wish they'd hurry up, their never slow on school days."

"Is that why you guys came today?"

"Yup." they both replied at the same time.

"Number 9?"

Cary went to scoot out of his seat but Charles got up, "I'll get it." leaving him there with Richard. They sat there in awkward silence until he finally spoke,

"Do you guys do this every week?"

"No…only when we feel like it pretty much."

"Well…do you guys have a special hang out or something?"

Cary was feeling more and more awkward "…here."

After 5 seconds worth of silence Cary sat up, "Why don't we…get to know each other better?"

Richard seemed to like that, "Ok. The way I do it is I play 'name that' in which you choose a topic for example, 'name your favorite color' then the other answers."

Cary would take anything as long as it didn't mean silence, "Ok. Go!"

"Name your favorite holiday."

"Easy. Fourth of July." He licked his lips, "Ok…name…something that pisses you off."

He fumbled with his fingers, "…When my mom announces she's on her time of the month."

Cary winced in disgust…he felt a baby barf in his throat. He was figuring out something to say, "…Ew."

Richard shrugged it off, "Ok name something tha-"

"CHARLES!" he saw him talking to a tall girl on the other side of the restaurant, with all of their drinks in his hands, "STOP BEING FAT AND GET OVER HERE!"

He said something sweet to the girl then turned to Cary, "CARY! STOP BEING A MIDGET AND COME GET YOUR OWN DRINK!"

Richard finally continued, "That annoys the hell out of you." he laughed realizing he got his answer. Cary turned around back at him, annoyed he now had to wait for his drink.

"He does this every time we come."

Richard snorted, "And you yell at him like that every time?"

Cary shrugged, guiltless, "He's used to it."

Charles finally sat down with their milkshakes, "Cary…why must you ruin every chance I get at hooking up with a hot girl?"

Cary shrugged, "You're the one who wanted to be my friend."

Richard sipped his drink, "How long have you guys known each other?"

As Cary said "6th grade." Charles responded "1st grade." Then the looked at each other confused,

"…6th grade Charles. Mrs. Tenebaum for math?"

"Cary…it was 1st grade, at the playground, when you were playing with sparklers."

Cary sat there in confusion, "…I don't remember that."

"But either way, you two have known each other for a while?"

Cary was slurping his milkshake eyeing Charles to talk,

"Yup."

"Wow…I've never had a friend that long."

Cary stopped, "More than a day?" he asked not thinking, Charles kicked him incredibly hard under the table. Cary didn't mean to be rude…but it really was a question he wanted to know.

Richard nodded, "Nope."

They stared, now shocked, "What?"

He smirked in guilt, "I did have this one friend…3 months we were inseparable. But it was my fault… I did something cruel and…we stopped talking."

Cary raised a suspicious brow, "That's it?"

Richard nodded sipping his drink.

Charles still hadn't taken a sip, but he _couldn't _at this point, "What did you do?"

Richard drank his milkshake before sitting back up, "That doesn't matter now…lets enjoy our time now right?"

Cary spaced out in his own confusion as what he could've done as Charles finally sipped his drink,

"Right…"


	3. What the Hell?

Joe ended up sneaking out of the house that night. When he told his dad he was going for a bike ride around the neighborhood, he told him no because it was a school night. After this argument over 'freedom' which was the only topic Joe could think of in the situation, he climbed out of his bedroom window.

He was outside the corner bar, not seeing anyone even _similar _to Louis Dainard. He was at the same time hoping no one _else _he knew would see him standing there. He felt pretty stupid though. Watching guys drink, vomit and pass out from his bike for no true reason.

But then he kept telling himself, _Alice, I'm doing this for Alice_! However he was starting to feel it wasn't worth it. Then he leaned up from his slouching position when he saw a familiar yellow car. He slowly pushed his bike a little closer and leaned forward,

It was Louis. He didn't stop as was literally cruising by the bar. Only thing was, he saw the way he was looking at it.

He _wanted _to go in there more than anything in the world. Almost like it was a life or death decision. Joe stayed alert in case if Louis decided to look the other way. The car came to a full stop, Joe was suddenly overwhelmed with curiosity about his next move.

After a second or two, Louis looked at the road ahead of him and took off. Joe watched him until it turned at the end of the road. He knew Alice would be happy to hear this, he knew his father would be wanting to check in on him any minute and began to pedal home.

Meanwhile, Alice had snuck out of bed after her father left to 'grab a few things' and was searching _everything_.

Fridge, Freezer, cabinets (ALL of them) even underneath his bed or in his closet. She even checked his drawers for any type of cigarette although she only ended up scarred afterward…

But at the same time, she was happy to end up back in bed not finding anything. However, she realized she forgot to check something else, the underneath the mattresses and pillow cases.

She would not rest until she searched _everything_.

Joe was able to sneak back home without his dad knowing, he snuck over to the phone in his room and dialed the Dainard's home (having a plan ready in case Louis answered).

Alice had finished scraping around underneath the sofa cushions becoming a little obsessive of making sure he was keeping his promise. The phone rang, she didn't see a car pulling up so she answered, "Hello?"

"Hey."

She recognized Joe's voice, she looked at the clock, it was only about 10:11 at night, earlier than she thought he'd go home, "Did you see anything?"

"Uh, yeah actually-"

She sat on the couch, "What?"

"He drove by the place and he looked like he was gonna go inside, but he didn't."

"And he drove off?"

"Yup. Just took off," she saw headlights in the driveway and rushed to get upstairs, she hung up the phone without even thinking about Joe and began throwing the couch cushions back in place,

"Hello?" Joe was confused but hung up anyway,

She had just finished sorting everything back out and the front door opened, she ran out into the living room,

"Ali?"

She smiled, "Hi daddy."

He knew something was up when she used 'daddy' either she wanted something or she was hiding something.

"What are you doing down here? I thought you'd be in bed."

She straightened out her night gown, "I was, but…." her eyes looked around the room trying to think of an excuse, she saw a picture of her and her dad fishing at a lake…

Lake…water!

"I was getting some water."

He nodded, not believing it, after an awkward silence she began to walk upstairs, "Well goodnight-"

"Woah woah, where's your water?"

"_Good job…"_

She turned around, "Oh…I decided I wasn't thirsty…anymore. Night." and she twirled around heading upstairs. She did a small victorial fist pump before making it into her room.

The morning after when everyone was entering the freshman building, Preston and Martin walked together,

"I still find hard to believe that we have to sit and _socialize _with this guy at lunch."

Martin rushed in front of him, "You know, you panic way too much In fact, it's starting to bug me."

They stopped in the front of the building, "I'm not panicking, I'm trying to be rational Martin." Martin rolled his eyes, "And I think it's time that you try to be to…I'll sit with you and the jocks today but that's the last time I get involved with David Veach!"

The first bell rang, Martin nodded in agreement and they headed into class, meanwhile, Cary didn't see Charles that morning and was getting his P.E. uniform from his locker, when he closed his locker door, randomly appearing from behind it was Richard,

"What are you doing?"

Cary gasped and jumped back a little, "My god you scared me."

"Where's Charles?"

Cary shrugged, "I don't know, why?"

"Well, every time I see you two, your always together."

Cary nodded, still a little creeped out, "Well…we're not together twenty four seven Rick…"

Richard nodded, "I see."

Cary stood there, confusedly trying to figure out what his point was, he began to turn around, "So…I have to go to class-"

"Wait!"

Cary turned back, "Yeah?"

"What was all that in your locker?"

Cary was confused at first, "My locker? Oh wait…those are fireworks."

Richard peeped through the little holes of the locker, "Why do you keep them in there."

"Whatever reason I can think of if I get caught." he joked.

Richard smirked, Cary felt offended,

"Like you don't keep something personal to you in _your _locker."

Richard raised a brow at Cary but he crossed his arms, "C'mon, lets see." They walked across the hall where Richard opened it, he saw nothing but horror film posters and then small containers on the top shelf of his locker, he grabbed it,

"What's that?"

Cary popped the lid open as Richard made a panicked grab for it, "Don't-"

"OH MY GOD!"

He dropped it, everyone in the hall was looking, inside of it was a lizards head, a dead cockroach, and these disgusting intestine-like…things along with them. They were now scattered across the hallway floor. Richard then fell and scurried around the floor to gather his things,

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH IT!" he screamed, now everyone for sure was staring. The second bell rang thank god, but Cary was still standing there looking at Richard in both fright and disgust. He finally forced himself to walk away, but turned back to find Richard actually _touching _them and putting them back into the box.

To make things even worse for Cary…he saw multiple containers on the top shelf.

In homeroom, Alice and Joe were to do a two-person assignment, making it a perfect time to talk things out in person,

"Everywhere I looked, I couldn't find anything. And when I say I looked everywhere, I mean _everywhere_. Even the couch cushions."

"I could tell…he wanted to go into that bar…" he shrugged, "But he didn't."

Alice pursed her lips, which turned into a little smirk,

"What?"

The smirk then turned into a smile, "He's trying to keep his promise then." She pushed her hair out of her face one again and wrote a little more on their assignment, Joe smiled happy for her…but then he wanted to try once more.

But he didn't want to sound pushy.

"So…should I go again tonight?"

Alice lifted her head back up, "One more night, just to be sure." she smiled once more, "Then he'll have won my trust."

Joe nodded smiling, "I'm happy for you two."

Alice smirked again, beginning to concentrate on her paper, Joe leaned forward,

"So…I guess we'll be having a conversation about something…different at lunch?" he was a horrible flirt, but it was his best chance.

Alice looked at him, about to laugh, "I guess so?" she giggled and Joe _pretended _to laugh…he could do better than that he thought.

Later on in second class, Cary was waiting for class to start as he couldn't stop staring at Richard, who was casually doing his work. He began to think of what he saw again and shuddered to himself, he felt a tap on his shoulder,

"Hey." It was Charles,

"Where were you?"

He sat down, "I had a doctors appointment-"

"I HAD TO-" he stopped, realizing everyone in class was staring at him, including Richard. He leaned in and whispered,

"I'm starting to agree with you about Richard-"

"Oh _now_-"

"Listen! He showed me his locker a-"

He stopped, Richard was staring at him through his bangs, Cary did _not _like the look in his eye. Richard didn't have to say anything for Cary _knew _what kind of consequences he'd get if he told,

"And?"

He turned around facing forward, "Never mind." he began to copy the vocabulary words on the board. Charles did the same albeit weirded out. Cary didn't dare to look at Richard for the rest of class.

-X-

The lunch bell rang an a crowd of hungry students eagerly ran to the cafeteria. Preston and Martin were not among them as Preston still had the gut feeling of what would happen.

"Would you stop?"

They were now at the outside campus, "Stop what?"

"Looking like that you look like someone's about to pop out and murder you!"

They entered the cafeteria,

"I'm sorry. I'd just rather eat lunch with people I know can't crush my skull."

They found David and a few other members of the football team were already there, they stood at the edge of the table,

David looked over at them, "So you didn't flake out on us this time?"

Martin threw his bag down and scooted next to David, "Nope. Right Preston?"

He hesitantly sat next to him, "Nope."

For the first five minutes of lunch, they sat there listening on their conversations of some of the girls in their grade, and about a couple of (cruel) pranks they pulled on a few students which only made Preston more nervous.

Martin later joined in the conversations, as they played along with him. Preston still sat there in silence, rummaging through his backpack hoping to find some forgotten homework or unfinished class work to do.

"Hey how come you never speak?" one of them asked,

"I have nothing interesting to say." he answered point blank still trying to find something to do in his bag,

"Well your friend here seems pretty interesting."

He raised a brow, "Does he?" he gave Martin his usual 'NOW what have you done' stare.

"I told them about our adventure over the summer."

Preston jumped on the inside upon hearing that, leaving Martin to clear it up, "Our _movie_. Preston."

He sighed in relief.

"Sounds pretty cool, a monster movie?"

"Yup, won 2nd place at the Cleveland film festival."

Preston was starting to unwind, Martin seemed to have things under control as he was able to put his bag down.

"So what do you do in your free time now a days? David asked, getting Preston intense once again.

"Nothing during school time really."

David nodded, the smirk on his face however made Preston suspicious once again,

"Well, there's this football game right here in the school…and we are planning something big."

Martin showed more interest while Preston began to actually pay attention to this guy.

"And we thought maybe you guys could be a part of our….event?"

Martin then agreed but Preston at last scooted in, "What is this 'event'?"

David played his game and leaned in, "A surprise event."

Preston looked at him with anger, showing David he knew exactly what was going on. But currently that smug look on David made him want to punch him right smack in the eye.

"Well, Preston and I are fans of surprises and we'll definitely be there-"

"No."

Martin flinched a little turning to Preston, "What?"

"No thanks,", he grabbed his bag and stood up, "I'm good."

Martin stood up after him, "I'll be back in a sec guys…" he took Preston to a corner far from the table,

"What are you doing?"

"That event is for us!"

Martin winced in confusion,

"Don't you get it? He's finally going to get his revenge on us for mocking him in 6th grade."

Martin sighed, "He said it's all in the past."

Preston was holding back his urge to slap him, Martin straightened his posture, "Look, your just a little jealous that the jocks are liking me better than you."

Preston smirked, "Jealous…" he laughed and walked away. Leaving Martin to go back with the jocks.

Cary and Charles sat at a little round table by themselves, while Charles was digging in, Cary stared at his food, feeling quite sick to his stomach. Charles was starting to express concern,

"Are you ok?"

He didn't respond, he waved a hand in front of him,

"What?"

"What's wrong with you?"

"…I cant eat." he pushed the sandwich wrapped in tinfoil away from him. "You want it?"

"I'm good?"

He pushed it farther to him insisting, "For later maybe?"

"Dude what's wrong with you? You've been acting weird…well, _weirder _since this morning."

He put his hand in his head, "Ok I'm sorry…I saw…" he was gonna tell him. He wanted to so badly. Then he realized, Richard wasn't around, he sat up, "Wait…oh my god!"

"What?"

"Ok, uh-uh this morning, I was getting my P.E. uniform out of my locker and Richard pops up out of no where and starts talking to me-"

"When will this get interest-"

"Listen!" he was talking a mile a minute, using his hands to act out everything, "He notices the fireworks in my locker and he says that's weird and I tell him, everyone has something weird in their locker, so I asked to see his-"

"You saw his lock-"

"Quiet!" he hated being interrupted, "So I look in it I see a container, I just wanted to know what was inside of it I open it and…" he lost his excitement and the image in his head made his stomach turn, Charles leaned forward motioning him to continue, "And…it's a dead bug, a lizards head and guts-"

"Woah woah What?"

Cary nodded, still unable to believe it himself, "Well not like human guts like…bug guts or-"

He stopped when he saw Charles put his sandwich down and push it aside.

"Y-yeah."

"Dude, there is something wrong with him, he needs help."

"I know!"

"So why don't we tell the principal?"

"What good will that do? He wont care the kids keeping bug guts in his locker!"

"…Then lets find his ex-friend…"

Cary nodded, agreeing, he knew Charles was onto something. And he liked it.

Alice and Joe were at their own table, all they had been going on and on about were…interesting adventures they each had with their friends. Alice was laughing as Joe told a story from when he and Charles were in 5th grade and he tried to climb a tree outside of Charles's backyard. When Joe was finally up on the highest branch he could get, his shoe had gotten wedged in a gap between the tree itself then the branch. When he finally yanked himself free of the shoe, he ended up falling out and rolling into the lake. What did Charles do he asked her; he laughed and asked his mom to take pictures of him soaked.

The two were both laughing by the end of the story.

"I can definitely say that's never happened to me."

The two were giggling, he finally had her in the moment he thought.

"So…I'm really glad I could help with your dad last night."

She gasped, "Oh! I forgot to say, thank you so much…and sorry for hanging up on you last night," Joe began to laugh, "Yeah…" she giggled, "My dad was walking up."

"It's fine…uh…so, now that you know you can trust your dad, I mean after tonight of course…do you think you can come to our…bonfire?"

She smiled, "Sure…I'll be there." the bell rang, dismissing the students. She smiled and walked off, while Joe did a small fist pump in victory…however he had to keep _his _promise for the night.

**BeautifulyBlue: I'm sorry…I'm horrible at writing romance : ( But what do you think? Reviews? Please? : )**


	4. Falling Down

After lunch was over Cary was fiddling with the lock on Richard's locker while Charles kept an eye out for him,

"And your positive what you saw?"

Cary still shuddered at the thought, "Yes, I washed my hands for 15 minutes."

Charles still didn't see any sign of him, "Wait, how is this going to help? I thought a saw a yearbook in here…or something…" he, accidentally, put in the right combination and the lock came loose.

"Woah, how'd you remember?"

"I didn't…"

The opened up the door where he saw about 3 more of the containers on the top shelf. After hesitating, Cary grabbed one, slowly opening it. Almost barfing once again. This one had dead worms and maggots along with torn butterfly wings.

And something else…they seemed like ripped spider legs.

Charles was just as disgusted as Cary, "My god…this guys got issues."

Cary held a vomit inside of him, "Did he actually _kill _them?"

"Kill what?" they heard Richard from behind them. They immediately turned around Cary shoving the container back into his locker.

Charles stepped up, "Oh…hey, Richard…hi Richard-"

"Why are you two at my locker?"

"Oh…that well you see…we have this elective where," as he was going on and on with a fake excuse, Cary noticed the yearbook he thought he'd seen. He slowly dragged it out of the locker and held it behind his back,

"So we were just making sure your locker wasn't contaminated-"

He elbowed Charles, "I think he gets our point, lets go." They walked off, Cary switching the yearbook from behind his back to holding it against his stomach. Richard didn't notice as he grabbed a binder from his locker.

When school ended that day, Preston was on his way out of the building when Martin caught up to him,

"Hey! Preston!"

Preston wanted to keep walking. He didn't want to deal with his immaturity and hear more about David. But of course as a friend he should at least hear him out.

"Hold up!"

He turned around, walking back to the main steps, "What?"

He seemed angry, "What the hell was that today?"

"If your going to bring it up now save it for later." he began to walk away.

"Some friend you are! You'd be happy for me!" Preston had had it, he stopped once again and walked back to him.

"Happy for you about what? Happy that your making a desperate _fool _of yourself? If it was anything Martin, I'd say _you're _the one who's taking the wrong path."

Martin showed no signs of guilt, he had the same smug look as David had, Preston wasn't surprised that he wasn't so mature as to not respond.

"There planning something I know it…but your making a huge mistake. And I'm sorry but I tried and I cant help you." he walked away for the last time.

Martin held his mouth agape, "Preston…" he wasn't loud enough. He found himself on a brief guilt trip until he felt a hand on his shoulder, David.

"Friend ditch you?"

He threw his hand off, "_Was _my friend."

"Hey c'mon don't sweat it. Your one of us now." He walked in front of Martin, "Tell you what, we're hanging out downtown this afternoon? The more the merrier?"

Martin smirked loosening his shoulders a bit, "Sure." He walked next to David who patted his back. Although for some reason Martin had an achy feeling in his stomach.

Alice and Joe were both getting their bikes outside of the high school's exterior,

"Remember, last night. And if you see _anything _call me."

"I will…if there's anything wrong I mean."

Alice smiled and biked off. Joe however felt like he was getting no where with his…well, what he hoped was forming relationship with her.

He wasn't necessarily 'romantic', he had no clue when it came to flirting…and he'd already learned his lesson of _not _going to his friends for girl advice…he either ended up hurting their feelings…or just him getting hurt period.

Yet when he was with Alice, he felt like he was at the top of the world. Like anything was possible. She was the one person he truly felt like he could be himself with.

So why the hell didn't he just tell her that?

He wanted to yet he'd make up all these excuses not to; it's too soon, she'll never like him back etc. etc…No matter how many pushes his friends gave him. Even the literal pushes into her by Charles trying to be his 'wingman'.

It was a simple fear of rejection he told himself. It was the one fear everyone in the _world _had in common.

However, he wished he were one of the people who rose over it.

When Alice got home, she threw her bike down on the front lawn and stepped onto her porch.

"Dad?"

She walked in, he was no where to be seen, although his car was outside. She could hear the upstairs shower on. She put her bag down and ran to check the fridge. In their, she saw two new bottles of beer. Her stomach seemed to fill with heat as she heard the shower cut off, she grabbed one and stood in the living room until he came down, fully dressed.

"Ali-"

"What's this?"

He remained calm, "It's not what you thi-"

"That your trying to drink behind my back again? That you don't care about winning your daughter's trust as all?" she started to welt up in tears as the hot feeling in her stomach rose to her chest.

He walked closer, "I was saving those."

"_Saving _them? For what?"

"If guests ever came-"

"WHAT guests? This is the reason we NEVER have guests." it happened, she struggled to keep the tears in her eyes, "EVER! I can't invite friends over…family never comes to visit, I can never go out to be with my friends all because you don't even _try _to quit a stupid habit!" she bit her lip, a tear fell out, unable to hold it.

"Ali-"

"HOW ARE YOU SO CALM? I'm doing this for you! I don't want my dad to get sick or…or have to go to the hospital or-" she sniffled, "I don't want to get a phone call, saying my dad was killed in a car crash because he was driving drunk!" she breathed heavily.

He stood there…same expression as before, he nodded, "Ali, put that back. Please."

She finally had it, she violently threw it to the floor, smashing it on the tile floor and the heat had made it all the way to her head. She flounced past him heading to the stairs, he started to get stern,

"Ali!"

She stopped on the third step,

"…just help me clean this up please-"

"You still don't get it! You already killed someone because of your drinking! I don't want you to hurt anyone including yourself again!" She ran up the stairs, not another word from either one.

She slammed her bedroom door closed and locked it, she threw herself onto her bed, she couldn't hold it in anymore, she cried like a child, drowning her pillow in tears and snot.

She couldn't believe she said that. To her _dad_. But it was true. He'd hurt someone close to her and once to him. Now it was horrible because of the guilt that was forming inside of her for being so hateful…a rotten daughter she kept calling herself in her head.

One side of her however told her she did the right thing. Telling him off and reminding him was a sign that she knew her reasons for her goal and they were _good _reasons. But she still wanted to let it out, when she was six she'd scream into a pillow when she wanted to let her grief or anger out. (Something taught by her mother). But she felt childish whenever she did it these days. And of course screaming to herself in her room wouldn't do any good with the neighbors near by.

She shoved her tears away, wiping them with her comforter, she saw the phone on her desk. She was afraid her dad would listen in from the downstairs one, but at the same time she didn't care.

She dialed Joe's number…in hopes that maybe _he'd_ listen.

-X-

David had taken Martin out to a back alley, where some other people he'd been hanging around awaited. They had been sitting their talking about irritable things girls did or reasons to never get on their nerves. Martin was starting to feel comfortable around them for the first time.

The past few times, he hadn't truly felt like he belonged in the group just yet, but he knew he just needed time to adjust. He couldn't wait to show Preston however, guiltless of not even taking a _hint _of Preston's advice.

"Hey, when the hell is Pete gonna get here?" David spoke out,

"Don't flip your shit he's coming in a second?"

Martin sat up, "Who's Pete?"

"A senior, he's got _epic _privileges."

Martin smirked, "Privileges like what?"

Then Pete himself arrived, 5'11", bulky and…had a 6 pack of some type of drink product in his hand,

"Well well, if it isn't mister punctuality!" one of them joked.

"And how the hell are all of you?…and new kid…"

David patted Martin's back, "He's cool…he's declared himself a part of the group now."

He sat down, grabbing himself a can from the six pack, "Well so nice of you to join us?"

Martin went to take one, "So what is this soda?"

Everyone laughed, Martin smiled, "What?"

"Dude, it's beer."

Martin laughed…nervously, "Seriously guys-"

"Nope." Pete held up the can, "See?" It was definitely beer, it read "Samuel Adams" straight across.

Martin pulled his hand away, "Oh…" David leaned in,

"What's wrong? Haven't you drank before?"

"No…I'm 14."

A jock scoffed, "And? None of us are 21. Do you see us giving a shit?" he sipped his. Martin scooted away from the group until David grabbed his shoulder,

"Hey, I thought you were cool." he stopped,

"Uh-I am."

He held up an unopened can, "Then?"

He took it, opening it, he then proceeded to stare at the can. The people looking at him were making him more stressed,

"Come on! It's not poison!"

He took in a breath…he held it as he swallowed a mouth full of it. Tears forming in his eyes, it was the single most disgusting thing he'd tasted. Bitter, sour…and everything else awful combined…now to swallow.

Once he did, they applauded.

"Bravo!" David shouted.

He tried to smile, but he was too busy holding down the vomit that wanted to rush up. They went back to chatting and getting drunk as Martin remained silent for the rest of the afternoon.

Joe had been sitting in his room on the phone for the past five minutes waiting for Alice to finish,

"So then…I smashed the bottle on the floor and…stormed up into my room."

"My god…all that in 10 minutes?"

Alice tried to giggle but couldn't, "Yes but…before that I…I said something nasty, hateful to my father and…I want to take it back."

Joe sat up in his chair, "What did you say?"

There was a brief moment of silence and he could hear Alice inhaling on the other side of the phone, "I mentioned your mom…"

"…Oh."

"I'm so sorry-"

"No don't be! It's ok…you let it out."

Alice twirled the phone cord in her index finger, "So then…why do I feel like shit?"

"Because it's a shitty situation…No one wants their father to be drinking all the time."

Alice took a breath one last time, "…I don't think I should go to your bonfire…I'm sorry Joe I really am."

"It's ok. Don't even worry about it."

"…I feel…like crap." she remarked, the heat in her chest finally simmering down.

"Listen…your doing something good. Most daughters would just…give up and run away from it but not you. You're trying to help him."

Alice felt herself welting up again but she let it go.

"If you need _anything _Alice…I'm here."

Alice smiled, one more tear fell, "Thanks…you're a great friend."

Joe smiled softly… "Really…it's nothing…I just want to be there for you as much as I can."

Alice smiled, "You're a big help."

Joe had to say it, "I'll always be there." He did it…he wasn't even thinking about what he said until afterwards.

Alice laughed to herself, "Thanks…" she mumbled out unable to hear herself. She hung up. Trying to stop the drama-queen tears.

Charles and Cary were sitting outside Charles's house finally opening the old yearbook. Cary looked at the first page for signatures,

"Wow…only one signature."

"What's the name say?"

Cary had to bring it closer to see it, "Sonia Robinson…"

"Well look for her!"

Cary flipped through the pages of freshman until they made it to the R's. He scanned the names until he found it.

She was a cute girl with curly black hair and dark eyes.

Cary was almost as shocked as Charles, "…Richard was friends with _her_?"

"Maybe there's more to him than we think…"

Cary closed the book, "We gotta find her tomorrow and figure out what the hell is up with him."

"Sounds like a plan…"

The two sat there in awkward silence before Cary spoke,

"Charles?"

"Yeah?"

"Next time I decide I want to be nice to someone, remind me to say 'no'."

Charles sighed, "I'll try…"


	5. Coming Together

Preston was about to walk into his first class when Martin grabbed his arm and pulled him aside,

"Woah what the hell are you doing?"

"Dude, those guys got _wasted _last night!"

"What?"

"I hung out with them…they know this guy who…drinks beer and-they smoke-"

Preston grew more irritated a he was getting sick of only hearing about David from Martin, "That's great Martin, terrific." he was about to walk in when he noticed the guilty look on Martin's face, "…you didn't drink did you?"

Martin had no way out, he nodded.

"Oh my god-"

"Only a sip! I swear I didn't get drunk you have to believe me!"

Preston rolled his eyes, not sure what to believe anymore.

"So that's it?"

Preston didn't speak.

"I make one little mistake and we don't communicate anymore."

Preston walked into class.

Martin immaturely scoffed, "Alright." and sat at a desk as far away from him as possible.

The second bell rang. Charles and Cary were standing outside the sophomore building.

"If he got held back last year, then she's probably a grade 10."

"And if they both got held back, they could be the perfect freaky couple." Cary remarked as they walked up the steps,

"Just act cool, and keep an eye out for her."

Cary had the yearbook open in his hands, looking back and forth between her picture and the other students who were rushing to get to class.

Cary wasn't paying attention when Charles halted him, "Hey," he pointed to a girl in all black across the hall, "Is that her?" Cary looked closely at the picture then back. Black curly hair, dark brown eyes, insanely cute.

"That's her." he closed the book. They walked over to her, she was taller than the both of them.

"Sonia Robinson?"

She looked at them confusedly and shut her locker door,

"Can I help you?"

Cary wasn't speaking, leaving Charles, "…Yeah. Can we have a word with you?"

Cary stepped up, "Do you remember Richard Alexis?"

She had opened up her binder to look over a few notes but her eyes widened and she looked at the two of them. She suddenly dropped her binder and grabbed them both by the necks of their shirts, they both began to plea for her not to hurt them as she pinned them both against lockers,

"How the hell do you know Richard Alexis?"

Cary was trying to remove her hand which wasn't working, "He's in our grade! Weird kid! We just wanted to know what his deal was and we thought you could tell us-"

She slammed their heads into the lockers, "Why should I do that?"

Charles was also trying to remove her hand, "Because we think we can help him if you just tell us what he did!"

She continued to hold them against the lockers, they were lifted from the ground a little, she took a second then let them down, "Fine. Meet me outside the cafeteria after class. I'll tell you everything." she smacked a hand on Charles's chest one last time before walking away in a huff.

Cary smiled, "Woah." Charles gave him a look as he turned to him, "…Sorry."

Joe was working on his first hour assignment, only to continuously be distracted by Alice. She hadn't said anything the moment she walked in that morning. He was starting to get worried, especially after her little break down the night before. He made sure the teacher wasn't paying attention and leaned over,

"Hey, are you feeling ok-"

"Are you ready to hand in your paper Mr. Lamb?"

He sat back up, "Oh, no ma'am, sorry."

Alice didn't even bat an eyelash. Joe was starting to worry more. He made sure the teacher had gone back to grading papers as he tore a corner off of his paper,

He wrote,

_Hey, are you feeling ok? Do you want to talk?_

He passed it to her, and she read it. She gave him her usual look with her eyes and nodded a 'no'. He was confused as she wrote on the back of it,

_Still a little peeved. If we talk I might end up saying something stupid._

After reading it, he nodded, mouthing 'ok'. She stood up with her paper in hand, "Ms. Wade?", she walked up to her desk, "I'm finished." he watched as the teacher took the paper,

"No go do your silent reading."

When she turned around, Joe took note of how pitiful she looked. He knew he had to get involved at this point, even if she no longer wanted him to.

Meanwhile in Preston and Martin's class, the teacher was asking direct questions to the students.

"Two consecutive numbers have a sum of 91. What are the numbers?" he started to write on the board, "To begin solving this problem, define the variable. You do not know what the first consecutive number is, so you can call it x-" he stopped when he could hear Martin snickering from his desk, he turned around,

"Is their anything you'd like to share with the class?"

Martin had been reading through the questions in his folder, "I'm sorry, I was reading this question, Jess buys 12 oranges and 15 apples…is math the only place you can buy _that _many fruit and not get questioned for it?"

Preston turned his head to him, "Yes Martin but…in the real world, there are people who don't questions others actions and people who do, whether they are right or wrong because they care about them."

"Well Preston even if they did care," he used air quotes on care, "The people who question them need to stay out of those people's business."

"Well what if, just if, those actions involved the people who are questioning them-"

"Then they need to get a life-"

"BOYS!"

They both turned back to the teacher, "I'd like you two to see me after class."

They shot each other the 'evil eye' before slumping down in their seats.

The bell rang, Cary, Charles and Sonia met outside the cafeteria as they planned, making their ways through transitioning students.

"Ok we're here. Now tell us."

Sonia was still hesitant, "…and you swear you won't tell him you saw me?"

"Promise." Charles responded, they were sitting on the steps to the side of the building.

She sighed, "He moved in last year…he was the weird new kid so of course everyone targeted him to pick on." She straightened her posture out, "I pitied him…so one day I started talking to him. I found out he wasn't that bad…until of course, he started getting the wrong ideas."

Cary was intrigued, "Wrong ideas?"

"Yeah…he'd always try to hold my hand in the hallway…he'd leave these love letters in my locker…and he started giving me these bizarre gifts."

Charles winced in confusion, "Bizarre?"

She breathed, "Dead flowers…old, broken stuffed animals…just, weird stuff like that."

The two eyed each other, now they definitely knew they weren't hallucinating when they saw it.

She groaned in irritation, "Oh my god, he wouldn't stop calling my house-I finally told him to back off and that I only felt sorry for him. He took it so hard; 'I thought you loved me' he kept saying. And that's when I broke off from him." She put her elbows on her knees with her head in her hands, "But he didn't take it to well…"

Charles and Cary sat up, waiting for her to go on.

"He came to school the next day…dressed in all white." she shrugged, "Hence that…I always wear black or something?" she tried to laugh, "But anyways…he came up to my locker, I was…talking to my guy friend and…he had…s-something in his hand." the bell rang, "Don't move!" she yelled not caring if they were late.

"He-he, brought…a knife to school."

Their heart's dropped.

"He said…if he can't have me no one can…" she welted up in a sob, "…I know…that knife was meant for me…" she shuddered in her own sob, "But before he could, the knife that was meant for my head, went through my friends chest."

Charles felt a chill down his spine as Cary was about to throw up.

She shoved the tears away, "He didn't die but…he transferred schools and…after that, Richard got arrested." she sniffled, "I guess he's back." she finally finished.

"And they let him back into the same school?" Cary remarked flipping out.

"I guess so." Sonia stated.

"Why?" he asked Charles gave him his usual look,

"Because the sky is blue Cary. How the hell do we know?"

Sonia stood up, "You guys, _cannot _let him find me! Go tell your principle _right now_!"

Charles disagreed, "That wont do any good."

Cary was still flipping out as to who he was now locker mates with, "Why not?"

"It's obvious the principle thinks he's changed…maybe we can do something on our own."

"Like what?"

"I don't know…but for now lets go to class Yingst is gonna kill us for being late." they stood up grabbing their bags.

"Listen to me…he may not seem like it but he's dangerous."

Cary looked up at her, "Yeah, we know…"

She sighed biting her lip. He then walked up to her,

"So…you like short guys?"

"Bye." she walked away.

Charles raised a brow at him and Cary shrugged, "What?"

-X-

Preston and Martin were still in their seats unlike the others who had left to their second hour. 2nd period was their math teachers planning period, therefore, did not have students at this time. However today he did.

"Will one of you explain what that was today?"

"Preston's a traitor!"

"Martin's a _fool_!"

"Enough!"

Their heads then shot towards the teacher, "Now tell me? Has this past week been…interesting for the two of you?"

They both started shouting what was happening from their points of view until the teacher stood up, "One at a time!"

They remained silent, staring at each other with the evil eye once again, the teacher walked in front of his desk,

"Alright…Preston. You go first."

He took a second before sitting up in his chair, "Ever since Monday, all Martin's wanted to do is…hang out with this popular group-"

"If you hadn't made such a big deal about it-"

"Martin!…let him finish."

"And their…we had an…incident with one of them 3 years ago and he's still not over it…if he didn't have something in store for us he wouldn't be letting him run around with them all the time."

"I told you, he would've done it by now if he wants to get us."

Preston ignored him, "And what I've been trying to do is avoid that…but apparently Martin grew stubborn over the summer."

The teacher raised a brow, Martin leaned forward, "Now if you'll excuse me I have a few things to say-"

"You know what?" the teacher held a hand up, "Why don't you two go see the guidance counselor for this…" he sat down, "I have tests to make." They exited the room, the hallways were empty, they waited until they were half way down the hall before they started talking,

"Did you even get what I meant Martin?"

"Get what? That your trying to humiliate me in front of the whole class?"

They stopped, "…Dude! You have issues if you think _that's _what I was trying to do."

"Then what were you trying to do?" he ganged up on Preston, who was finally on edge.

"I was trying to be a friend…which I'm afraid I cant do anymore." he tightened the strap on his bag and walked away.

"So what are you saying? We're not friends?" he yelled, more angry than sad. Preston stopped before he could make it to the turn,

"I don't know, what do you think? Mr. Popular?" He was about to turn once again before Martin stepped up,

"So this means we're enemies?"

Preston didn't want this, he looked back at him, apparently Martin was blind to Preston's expression of sadness.

"…Then lets make it official…tomorrow morning before school…we fight."

Preston nodded, "We'll see who shows up." and he was finally gone. Martin sighed…in hopeless guilt. He now had to fight his best friend. Unaware that he didn't _have _to.

Joe caught Alice at her locker before third class, "Alice!" he ran up to her, she smiled for a split second and went back to getting her things together,

"Listen, when we talked last night, you don't know how much I wanted to be there and I wanted to let you know I thi-" he then saw she was putting her things into her book bag.

"What are you doing?" She slumped it over her shoulder,

"I'm going home…that way if he's drinking I can catch him and…turn him in."

Joe walked after her, "You cant turn him in!"

"Joe! He's an alcoholic; he's dangerous to both me and himself!"

"But putting him away isn't gonna help! I know that, my dad's dealt with people like that before."

"Lets face it Joe! He can't recover no matter how hard he tries!"

"Give him another chance!" now he was standing up for Louis rather than Alice…she was being a little overactive.

"I've been giving him other chances for the past 2 months! He wont recover! He wont even try not even for his daughter!" she began to walk away, Joe rushed behind her and grabbed her arm,

"That's what I wanted to tell you! There's a better way than locking him in prison. Haven't you heard of Great Lakes?"

Alice was shocked, "The REHAB center?" she half shouted.

He was starting to get frightened as he nodded nervously, she shook his arm off.

"That's not gonna work. I tricked him into driving there once and he speeded off. Nothing works Joe! Nothing!" people in the halls were staring as they passed by.

"You don't know until you try!" he finally yelled back.

"I've given up on him Joe!"

He had nothing to say to that…it was _her _father he was trying to defend. But he still couldn't let them _both _get hurt, "Alice. You have to at least consider it one more time. Before he gets hurt."

"He's already hurt." he saw the tears in her eyes before she swung the other strap around her shoulder and walked out the main doors, forcefully slamming them open. He watched her leave until her couldn't see her anymore.

At third class which was history, Cary was sitting in the seat behind Charles as they worked on a textbook assignment. Richard was in the seat next to Cary, which was bothering considering he couldn't look at him the same way. Richard kept looking back and forth between Charles and Cary. However Charles and Richard were unaware of the way Cary kept staring at Richard…he was waiting…any minute now…he wished it would hurry up.

There was a beep from the intercom, "Will Richard Alexis come to the front office please? Richard Alexis?" Cary then looked at nothing but his paper as he listened to Richard leave the room. Charles was confused at first, but then he looked back at Cary,

"Cary…you didn't."

He shrugged, "Ok…I didn't."

Charles gave him his irritated stare but Cary wasn't interested in talking at the moment…so Charles waited until after class.

"Dude, why did you tell?"

"It was all I could think of!"

"Sonia told us not to!"

"Who cares what she said, that guy has problems! And what did you have in mind?" he turned the dial on his lock.

"…I was getting to that."

Cary snickered at how he had no plan and opened his locker, only to have it slammed closed by Richard, nearly breaking Cary's hand. They jumped back,

"Do you know what you did you little brat?" he yelled picking Cary up by the neck of his shirt, Cary tried to fight his hand off but Charles stood up for him,

"Hey put him down! He didn't do anything wrong!"

"I just got suspended, and I have to go to daily hour-long therapy sessions because of what you told him!" he violently shoved Cary into Charles.

"Hey! _I _helped you!" he fought back. The two had an angry stare down before he saw the principle himself call him over, he gave Cary a hateful stare as he left. Charles ran in front of Cary,

"What the hell did you say?"

"Nothing! I just told him that I think this guy has issues and when they asked for his name I just told them and…1, 2, 3 bitch flip."

Charles hated it when Cary didn't take things seriously, "Look, he's gonna be fine." Cary went back to getting his books like nothing happened.

Alice had just made it home, "Dad?" she called, looking upstairs, however he was on the couch,

"Don't shout I'm over here." he looked at the clock, "…What the hell why are you home?" she took out a folded piece of paper, "…Fake parent note." She put it on the coffee table, "Says I have a doctors appointment." he was only watching television when she sat on the couch next to him.

"Did you drink?"

"No."

"Are you lying?"

"Why would I lie to my only daughter?"

Alice got a stern look, "Because you have before." she stood up, "I'm checking the fridge."

"Ali."

She opened it, nothing. She was still high on her guard, "cabinets…" she thought aloud, she began rummaging through them,

"Ali. Nothing is here."

She stopped, still surprised she was finding nothing but the usual glasses and cups in the cabinets,

"I'm gonna take a shower you continued your little…hunt." he waved a hand and walked upstairs. She still searched the cabinets. The couch cushions, everything once again. She started to feel beads of sweat in her hair as she looked _everywhere_. She finally gave up plopping down on the couch in exhaustion. She could hear the running water from the shower upstairs and decided to go up. She put her ear against the bathroom door and could hear it loud and clear. She cracked the door and saw his reflection in the mirror. Nothing out of sorts in the bathroom as she looked on the counter. She closed it back. Smirking to herself…

Maybe she _was _overreacting. She walked into her room and sat on her bed, relieved for the first time in a while. Still, she was positive her hair had gotten ratty from the sweat and running around the living room. She opened the drawer on her small desk next to her bed to get her brush but found something else… she opened it all the way as it was almost going to fall out of the frame, she found a beer bottle.

The one place she'd never think to look. Her dad may be a drunk, but he was a smart one. But she felt her self welting up again as she pulled it out, it was warm like it had been there for hours. She walked back downstairs and when she went to dump it in the trash, she saw another empty one in there. Then that's when she heard the _shatter bang!_

She jumped, she could still hear the running water. She couldn't speak as she slowly walked upstairs, dreading what she would see. When she opened the door, she came to a sight of her father lying on the floor with the shattered shower door below him.

She felt the tears as she could only mumble out, "dad?"


	6. Turning Tides

The ambulance Alice called arrived 15 minutes later. There were pieces of glass in his arm but nothing severe. But she was a panicked mess. As they were carrying him on a stretcher one of the men kept trying to calm her down,

"I don't know what happened I just came home from school and…after a while I hear something fall and I find him laying there!" she screamed in a horrible bawl, "Oh my god!" she covered her face.

"Miss, it's ok-"

"Why is this happening?" she screamed to herself.

"He'll be fine, he just needs a few stitches."

She kept trying to breathe but she had so many tears left to shed. One of the men walked down the stairs, "Excuse me?" she looked up from the couch, he held out a beer bottle, "We found this under your bed." she clasped her hand over her mouth as she began to welt up again,

"That's not mine." she declared, "Honest. He drinks…way too much. He hides those from me." she bit her lip, "I can't get him to stop." One of them sat next to her,

"Have you considered rehab?" she gave him a look, "For him I meant?"

She put her head down. She didn't even want to think about what he did when she suggested it. He stood up, "You hold on." he walked out of the front door she wiped her tears with her arm, the cop who had been trying to calm her down stood up,

"Do you want to ride in the ambulance?"

She shook her head, "No…I'll come later." The man who had left walked back in with a card,

"This is the Great Lakes rehab center. Not far from here." she took the card. "They've helped a lot of people." he said before walking out shutting the door behind him.

After a good minute or two she listened to the cars take off and the house was silent. She laid on the couch biting at her nail for a while watching the time go by. Not watching television, not reading, nothing. She finally ran out of tears as she sat herself back up. School had another two hours. She was shocked as it felt like it _had _been hours since she got home.

It had gone too far. He'd gotten hurt far worse than Alice ever imagined. She didn't know who to blame. Him, or herself. If she had been there, maybe she could've done something…like have the shower door fall on top of her? That wouldn't have done any good. Of course sitting on the couch biting her nails wasn't going to help either… she then realized she still had the card in her hand. She observed it carefully, the address and phone number were both on there. She didn't have a choice anymore…and she wouldn't give her dad a choice this time. She walked over to the home phone dialing it, after two rings someone picked up.

"_Great Lakes Ohio."_

"…Hi…I'd like to make an intervention."

When Joe biked home from school that afternoon he was shocked to see Alice standing out on his porch, as if waiting for him. He slowed down a bit. She sitting on the curb was looking the opposite way but stood up the moment she saw him. She made a facial expression as if to come over. They both sat out on the curb,

"Hey…is everything ok?" he could see how exhausted her eyes were already knowing his answer.

"No. My dad had an accident and he's getting stitched as we speak." she replied still shook up.

"Oh my god-"

"But he'll be fine they said…"

He then recognized the bitter tears in her eyes, "So what's wrong?"

She swiped her hair behind her ear, "I called the rehab center. Once he's checks out tomorrow, a taxi is taking him there and I'll be waiting for him. I gave him no choice whatsoever."

He scooted closer, quite proud of her, "Well that's good!"

"No…Joe I want you to be there with me when I check him in. I'm cutting school tomorrow do you think you could lie to the school for a day?"

He was about to immediately reply yes but then he thought, he's never lied to anyone before, which meant he'd had no practice…which meant he'd be bad at it.

"Well…I can try but…what would I say?"

"…Call in sick or say that you have a sick relative."

He laughed, "Alice…there's the worst liar in the world…and underneath that is me."

She laughed on the inside,

"I don't think I'll be able to do it."

She smiled, his small jokes always cheering her up, a sudden light bulb popped up, "I can write you a fake note. That's how I got out of school today."

"Ok…but who's gonna turn it in?"

She smirked, "You are."

"I…what?"

She laughed, "It's gonna say you have a doctor's appointment and you have to leave school early."

He still had an anxious look when Alice scooted in, "Joe, all you have to do is what up to the front desk at the main office, hand her the note, she'll say 'ok' check you out and you leave." she gave him a 'it's so simple' shrug.

He was still struggling as to what to say, Alice was trying her hardest not to laugh, "Joe, life comes with even the tiniest bit of rebellion." She patted his back standing up. She grabbed her bike,

"I'll drop the note off at your house tomorrow morning. Meet me outside my house at 11 A.M." she pulled her bike onto the sidewalk, she turned back to him, "And please don't look suspicious." she joked before hopping onto her bike and riding away.

Joe sat on the curb, smirking to himself but at the same time he was now hypothesizing how it would go

…not good.

He walked into his house. Meanwhile, Preston threw himself back onto his bed. He stared at the ceiling.

His best friend just challenged him into a fight…one thing he'd never pictured himself doing a day in his life…well, something he'd never pictured himself _winning _to say.

He heard a knock on his door, "Prest? You doing ok?" it was his mother.

"I'm fine mom." he lied.

"Can I come in?" he sat upright.

"Sure."

She opened up. Preston resembled his mom a little too much. Both had black hair, brown eyes, pale skin. If he was a girl he could he her twin. She stood at the doorway,

"You have a lot of homework?"

He nodded, kicking his bag which was on the floor to the side, "Nah." he replied casually.

She crossed her arms with her usual loving sigh, "If you need anything let me know." she began to walk out,

"Hey mom?"

She turned back,

"I actually have this…assignment for my psychology class. I could use some help."

She leaned against the door frame, "Ok?"

"Say…there are these two friends…and one of them makes a choice that wasn't so good even though the other friend told him not to.", he tried his hardest not to make it obvious…which wasn't working with the facial expressions he was making, "Now, the two friends are planning to fight…but one of them doesn't want to…what should I-this friend do?"

His mother was hopelessly confused but she slowly pieced it together in her head, "Well…" she began to walk in, "Lets see…" she sat down on the bed next to him, "I think instead of violence…these two should talk it out…and if they really were friends then they'd hear each other out…listen?"

He nodded, although it was no help at all considering he'd tried that _many _times.

"K…thanks."

"No problem." She walked out of the room shutting the door. Once she was out of earshot Preston sighed in an aggravated tone and swung his legs back onto his bed, staring at the ceiling once more. Meanwhile that night, Charles and Cary were chatting each other through the walkie talkies they bought each other for Christmas a while back,

"How long do you think Richard's gonna be suspended?" Charles asked, listening to his siblings scream in the other room. Cary was at his house laying on his stomach on his bed, he rolled over onto his back and so his head could dangle off the side,

"I don't know a week maybe?"

"It still buggin' me…what problems could he have?"

Cary thought to himself, he knew nothing of mental illnesses, especially ones that made people kill bugs for no apparent reason, "…paranoia?"

"God if my sister was home I think she'd know the answer; we all know she's got something wrong." he joked. One of his older sisters Jen, who was currently a senior, was always ranting about the usual teenage drama issues. Her catchphrase, "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

Cary smirked, pulling himself right side up, never able to sit still when he was anxious. His parents and brother always knew he was frustrated or anxious whenever he was bouncing all over the place…which was all the time,

"I just hope he gets some help."

Charles nodded in agreement although he couldn't see him, "Yeah. Same…I just wish he hadn't said that to you."

Cary was confused, now laying flat on his bed with his head on the pillow, "Why? I'm fi-"

"I mean, it seemed like a threat the way he yanked you up like that…what if he's got something in store when he gets back?"

Cary was still confused, "I'm sure the principle will take precautions, especially after what he found out."

Charles leaned back onto the headrest of his bed, "Maybe your right." he could hear the fumbling of Cary's bed sheets on the other line once again, meaning he was shifting his position for the 50th time they've been talking, "Would you stop moving around? Your making _me _nervous!"

"Ok ok!" he had positioned himself to lean his head against the other side of the bed but he sat up once again, attempting to maintain his position, "Jeez. I guess what's happened the past week bugged me to." He tried to distract himself by gazing into his wall poster of an atomic explosion from the Upshot-Knothole operations in the 1950s.

"Listen, this taught us something: To not always be so open to people. Especially when we can tell something's up."

"I know…ok. Can we talk about something else now?"

Charles re-opened his math textbook, "Yeah yeah…" he turned to the page in which they had the same homework assignment, "So question 22?"

Cary pulled his book out of his bag and flipped to the page reading the question aloud, "Solve the equation X plus three, parenthesis, X minus three equals negative eight." The two took out paper and began to answer them separately to share answers later, until Cary spoke again, "…What if…Richard has hysterical mood swings?" he called out, confident with his answer. Charles wasn't exactly surprised,

"Cary…"

He went back to his paper, "I know I know."

-X-

The phone woke Joe up that morning. He rolled over falling out of his bed half-awake, "I got it!" he called although his dad had already left. "I got it…" it rang a second time, "Hello?"

It was Alice, "Hey…did I wake you up?" he rubbed his eyes, he looked at the clock…it was six in the morning. School wouldn't start for an hour and forty five minutes,

"Ah…no."

"Ok…just making sure you remember the plan…stop by my house before you go to school I have the note ready for you." he could hear the smile in her tone.

He still wasn't fully awake, "Ok, I'll be there in a sec." he hung up…then threw himself back to bed for another minute or so.

Martin was outside the back of one of the school buildings. Pacing back and forth hoping Preston _wouldn't _show up. He kept wishing he could go back and time fix the whole fuckary. It was 6:45 and hardly anyone had shown up except for a few staff members and some students for before school clubs.

"Hey."

He turned around to see Preston standing about a foot away from him. He didn't want to do this…but at the same time he couldn't blow his cover, just talk he thought. Talk!

"So you ready for this?"

Preston tilted his head, "Sure." he replied a little too casually for Martin's liking. Martin took off his glasses shoving them into his pocket,

"You really want to do this?"

Preston slipped his bag off of his shoulders and dropped it down next to him, "Ready when you are." he commented sounding a little more serious than the first time. Martin stood in place…hesitant to _touch _him. He scanned Preston up and down as to where his weakest spot was…he was hoping it could be a one hit finish maneuver but was out of luck when it came to having the _urge _to punch him. Preston folded his arms,

"Ok…I'm waiting." he backed up a little, seeming a little nervous. No where near as nervous as Martin, who was loosening his clenched fist,

"Maybe you should take the first hit…" he backed up a little. Preston unfolded his arms. Almost as scared as him,

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

He saw the look on Martin's face, he wanted to do this as much as _he _did. He took a step forward, as much as he didn't want to…he wanted to so badly at the same time. To leave him in the dust for someone who was waiting to strike any minute, to ignore his advice which he had been taking for years and it never steered him wrong, to forget who his best friend was…

He punched him in the cheek…and hell did it hurt. Martin was knocked back a bit while Preston was mentally shocked at his action. _Now _Martin was ready. He went to punch Preston's cheek but he was able to grab his fist in time but was struggling to hold it back. Martin took his other hand and shoved him to the ground. Preston was then heated up enough to _want _to fight back. He rushed to get back up and the two were in a struggle to grab the other, right as Martin went to knee him in his…manhood, Preston was able to kick his ankle hard enough to shove him backwards. Martin went toppling over onto a trashcan, knocking it over as it rolled across the alley.

Before Martin could get back up, Preston grabbed his hair lifting him upward and shoving him sideways into a wall. Anger in both of their expressions,

"Listen! I don't want to do this!"

"Then what the hell was all that?" Martin shouted.

"TO PROVE A POINT!"

They both needed a few breaths. They observed each other, they were now covered in dirt and bruises and Martin was sure he crushed his glasses on that fall.

"Do you see what he's done? He's turned you against your best friend." Preston let go of Martin's jacket sleeve, backing away, "Was it really that hard to figure out?"

Martin pushed himself away from the wall, that hopelessly pitiful look in his eyes, but he _did _get it…he just never wanted to admit it…after fourteen years of being wrong around Preston he wanted to feel right for once. But he'd only made a fool of himself once again, "I didn't want to do this either…it's just you _always _know what's going on, leaving me in that dark clueless corner."

Preston gave him his usual stare, "Well you've caught me now.", Martin winced in confusion but he smirked, "I have no idea what to say back to that."

It took Martin a second but he smiled, "Say you'll forgive and forget?" he held out a hand. Preston rolled his eyes,

"Well…alright." they shook, which then turned into their 'secret' handshake. The two burst out into laughter before sitting down, leaning against the side of the building.

"You know dude, you are _suck _as a fighter." Preston mocked. Martin laughed as he grabbed his glasses, which much to his surprise were fine.

"I guess watching kung fu movies _doesn't _help."

Preston snorted before getting something in mind, "Wait…today's Friday." Martin raised a brow,

"Good job?"

"No no! I meant remember that 'event' they planned for us? What the hell do we do about that?"

Martin scratched his head, after a second he suddenly had an idea, "I got it. But you're gonna need to help me." Preston agreed. They then sat there, laughing at what terrible punchers they were.

It was seven in the morning and Alice was outside her house leaning on her bike looking to and fro down the road for Joe. He suddenly came up behind her "Hey."

She jumped, "Hey, I thought you lived the other way-"

"A short cut I know." he then got nervous, "Not that I try to find shortcuts to your house or anything just, I know this place really well-" she took out the yellow slip from her pocket,

"Here." he took it reading it,

_Joseph Lamb will be departing early for a scheduled doctors appointment at 12:00 P.M._

It had a forged signature and everything. He was impressed, "This looks so real."

Alice smiled, "The way you make models…I've had my hand at practicing signatures." she looked down in modest embarrassment. Joe smiled and folded it to put in his pocket. She threw her head back up, "Remember, 11:00 be back here!" she stood upright, having been sitting against her bike all morning. He gave her a scout salute,

"Promise."

She smiled to show her gratitude one last time before rushing back inside. He forgot where he was supposed to be going until he saw his bike. He hopped on racing to the school.

The first bell hadn't even rung and Cary and Charles were sitting out by the lockers with nothing better to do. Cary wanted to see how good Charles could solve a riddle,

"Ok, so a rich man who lives in a circular house gets killed and there are three suspects. The detective asks the maid and she says 'I was cleaning corners' he asks the cook who says 'I was making his breakfast' and then he asks the wife who says 'I was out shopping' who did it?"

Charles had to think for a second…not exactly awake nor thinking about his options, "Hint?"

Cary raised a brow, "Ok…he lives in a _circular _house?"

Charles shrugged.

Cary's eyes looked around the hall in confusion, "Circular as in _no corners_?" he used his index finger and made a circle in the air. He knew Charles wasn't awake. But then he was when he saw someone down the hall, his eyes widened in fright,

"Cary," he looked. Richard was standing at the walking down from of the hall with his hand in his pocket, he bypassed the two completely and opened his locker. They shot up onto their feet, Cary immediately loosing his mind.

"Why is he here? I thought he got suspended."

Charles tried to stay in high spirit, "Maybe he's just grabbing a few thing from his locker and leaving?"

"There's nothing left in his locker!"

They saw him put something in his locker and shut the door. They didn't see what it was but they saw him looking around the hall as if to make sure no one was looking. The first bell rang. As the students began walking to their classes, Richard stared at the two of them. The knots in their stomachs twisted and pulled until they had no other idea then to sneak into the crowd and walk to class.

Looking back in hopes that he wouldn't follow them.


	7. Mad World

**BeautifulyBlue: I am not dead everyone! So sorry I haven't updated in a while, I promise the next couple of chapters will make up for it! Along with tons of other stories awaiting! **

Joe stood outside of the main office as transitioning students pushed him out of the way as they crossed his path. He had the note in his pocket…but his first time lying, why did he have to be raised as a goody-goody?

He finally opened up the doors and walked up to the desk where a woman was working on files. He cleared his throat humbly hoping she'd look up. Nothing. He 'coughed'. She raised her head, she was quite frightening,

"Can I help you?"

He pulled the note from his pocket, "Yes…I have a scheduled doctors appointment." it felt as if his hand was shaking when he held it out. She took the note from him, reading it to herself. His heart was beating faster the longer she took to read it. She looked at him with her eyes,

"Name?"

"J-Joseph Lamb."

She held the note up to him, "Go on." he was confused, he watched as she scrolled through a long packet of names to sign him out,

"Really?"

"Get out." she waved an irritated hand. He smiled, a nervous laugh,

"Thanks." He whirled around exiting the building.

Cary was at his locker, consistently looking to his left and right to make sure Richard was no where in sight. He quickly shoved his supplies for gym in the locker making a grab for his binder. He closed his locker door, expecting another surprise appearance from Richard but nope. He sighed in relief and turned around…to find Richard standing there. He jumped back, but stopped himself from running,

He couldn't let him know he was intimidated….be a man he thought.

"You know your not supposed to be here!"

"Think again chompers!" he fought, mocking him with a cruel nickname Cary had already been introduced with, "I had a _long _talk with my mom and the principal and it looks like I'm staying with only a few consequences for 'my actions." he continued using air quotes.

"_Your fucking kidding me!" _Cary had no other choice at this point, it was the only way he'd get him off of his and Charles's back…let him be someone else's problem, "Look," he shut his eyes, "I'm sorry. Ok?" he tucked his binder under his arm, Richard sighed,

"I thought we were friends."

"We could've been!" He may as well be honest with his not-friend, "But the thing with the bugs-"

"I can stop!"

"But why do you do that? What's up with that?" Cary knew _why_…but he couldn't get Sonia involved again.

Richard stood there, no response. Cary breathed in, "I just wanted to help with…whatever may be wrong with you."

"Nothing is wrong!"

Nothing is wrong? Cary wanted to laugh…he did for a second,

"WHAT THE HELL IS SO FUNNY?"

Cary stopped, forcing himself to hold it in… "I'm sorry," he did not like the look in his eyes, "But do you even listen to yourself? You have problems-"

Suddenly Richard shoved Cary backwards, walking up to him and leaning over him, cornering him against a door, "Listen up here you stupid little shit, _my_ problems are none of _your _business." he hissed through his teeth, Cary violently shoved him away,

"GET OFF!"

People in the hall were staring… and Richard wasn't liking that. He could see hell rising in Cary's eyes,

"FOR THE RECORD, I WAS JUST BEING NICE! EVER SINCE THE BEGINNING I JUST FELT SORRY FOR YOU! BUT YOU **REALLY** NEED **HELP**!" He forcefully swallowed everything else he wanted to say and stormed away.

And _that _was something Cary shouldn't have said. All his life the one thing _everyone _told him was he needed help. But he'd been denying this since the age of eight. And he wasn't going to admit to some _kid _that he needed it…he'd be seeing him after school…

Joe made it back to Alice's house who was already on her bike. She smiled when she saw him pulling up, he put his foot on the ground to balance the bike,

"How was turning in the note?"

"Easier than I thought…" he smirked with a small laugh. She joined in.

"So, do you know where this rehab center is?"

She nodded, "Looked at a map…memorized all the directions."

"Alright…so lets go." They started to bring they're bikes out on the sidewalk before Alice stopped at the end of the driveway, Joe didn't notice until he was halfway down the path, "What's wrong?"

He hated the solemn look she had on her face, "My dad's going to _hate _me when he finds out where that taxi's taking him."

Joe threw his bike down and walked back over, "Don't say that. He'll know your trying to help him."

"But that's what he can't stand…that he can't help himself. That someone has to baby him all the time he feels like."

Joe had to pause and think about that…he really _didn't _know what the situation was like for her…especially someone she cared about that much. He tried to think of his mother…what would it have been like if he _knew _what was going to happen that day…he'd do anything to make it stop. _Anything._

And Alice felt the same about her dad. She knows what path lies ahead and she was putting their relationship on the line to keep her father healthy and _alive_.

"Listen…" he stepped closer and put a hand on her shoulder, "Your not doing _anything _wrong…so stop beating yourself up like that. Ok _that's _what's not going to help." He didn't even realize it but his hand was on her cheek. Her expression was slowly changing from sadness, to hopefulness as he looked right into her eyes.

…Then he realized what was happening. He quickly slid his hand away, "Uh-so…you feel ok now?" he backed away…being 'romantic' never felt so…different. But she smiled,

"Yes…much." She smiled at him as she walked passed him pushing her bike onto the sidewalk. He smiled to himself before grabbing his and pedaling off.

Martin found the jocks at their usual lunch table later in the day. He threw down his bag and sat next to David,

"So how was having a hangover?"

David had his head down on the table, "Fucking painful."

Martin observed all of the jocks, they all looked either dull, exhausted or had their heads buried in the table. He pushed his glasses up and kept in high spirits, "So you know what tomorrow is…the event?"

He rose his head, smirking "Yeah…your in?"

Martin nodded, but David became suspicious, "That big-headed kid isn't here is he?"

He faked a scoff, "Nah, ditched him. So what's the plan?"

David looked around to make sure Preston wasn't in sight and leaned in, "We're hanging that kid on the bleachers by his feet…you'll see how tonight. But that's what the little devil gets for being 'smart'."

Martin smirked back at him, "So where are we meeting?"

"Out on the football field, behind the north set of bleachers."

Martin nodded. Preston was at another table not too far from them, he had been watching them the whole time waiting for the signal… behind his own back, Martin snuck him an 'ok' symbol. Preston smiled and went back to digging into his food.

Cary was not in a good mood. Charles could tell by his violent pushing of the buttons on his game. When he was mad he did everything angry. 'Angry' talking, 'angry' reading…and angry playing. It was quite entertaining for Charles with the facial expressions he was making. Cary played better when he was mad, but Charles had to know,

"You tackling them hard enough?" he joked, Cary finally put his game down by throwing it onto the table and buried his face into the table,

"I've got such a headache."

"What's wrong?"

He lifted his head, "Richard's a psycho! That's what's wrong!" Charles's expression grew concerned, "Little f….." he caught himself, not being aloud to curse at school. He remembered what his mom did when he got caught doing so last year…he pounded his fist on the table with the first three words of his scentence, "Little _freaking __**IDIOT **_is out of trouble!" he slammed his fist on the table one last time to let the anger out. Or at least some. Charles had never been so scared of Cary in his life, not counting the time when he first saw him in his zombie makeup, but he knew Richard had to have done something _bad_ to make Cary this upset. He knew better then to mess with Cary's temper. If one knew what buttons to push, Cary was TNT waiting to explode.

"So wait, the lunatics out of suspension?"

"Yes Charles,", he hissed, "I just told you."

"Fucking shit!" he bared through his teeth…he hoped he could make Cary feel better by cursing for him. Cary just stared and unconvinced look, "Sorry." but he got Cary to smile. However he was gripping onto his hair, which _really_ meant the situation was bothering him.

"Cary, we'll go to the principal and see if we can get a locker or class change. Better?"

The cafeteria monitors began dismissing tables, Cary pushed his bangs back out of his face, "No."

-X-

Alice and Joe were in the waiting room in the front entrance of the building. They had been sitting watching the news on the small television for an hour until Alice got on the phone at the desk. After five minutes she sat back down next to him,

"Doctor said he was checked out a few minutes ago." She looked at the floor, Joe sat up,

"So he'll be here any minute!" he tried to sound enthusiastic to cheer her up, which wasn't working when he saw her foot rapidly tapping on the floor, "You ok?"

"I'd be lying if I said yes." she pulled her hair back as it was constantly getting in her face, "My god I'm a horrible daughter."

That's when he scooted closer, "You're _not_. No daughter would go this far to help her dad."

"Then why do I feel like dirt?"

He had to say it, the tears in her eyes weren't going to make him feel better that he did, "…Because you let yourself feel that way." She gave him a stern look, which was (thankfully) interrupted when Joe saw a taxi outside.

"A-Alice?"

She turned around, "Oh god…" She watched as the officer she had talked to the day before helped him out. She wasn't liking the look on his face when he saw where he was. She looked back at Joe, "Promise you won't leave?" She grabbed his hand, he nodded,

"I promise."

She jumped when she heard the door open, she stood up straight and waited for him to look at her, he had only three stitches on his head, nothing as bad as she thought, but hell was he shocked to see her,

"Ali?"

She bit her lip, Joe stayed seated, waiting to join in when necessary, "Hi dad."

He was still shocked, "Why are you here-" it came to him when he saw her 'guilty eyes', "You planned this?"

She had to stay strong, although her heart was beating a mile a minute, she simply nodded. Joe was looking back and forth between the two with his eyes, not sure what to say or when. He saw Louis walk up to her,

"Ali-"

"Dad!" she exclaimed, the woman at the desk looked at them, she ignored her, "We're doing this whether you like it or not." Joe decided to step in, especially when Louis began to look angry,

"She just wants to help you." he stepped up next to Alice, "So please don't be mad at her. It's for your own good!" The woman at the desk pretended to ignore the two as she filed some papers as Louis stared in surprise,

"There really is no way out of this is there?"

Alice nodded a 'no'.

He sighed, he knew he couldn't do it anymore. He didn't _want _to do it anymore. He didn't want to hurt anyone anymore…he accepted it,

"So how does this work?"

Alice and Joe suddenly lit up in surprise, he looked at her, hinting her to speak, she couldn't help but smile,

"We'll…find out in a second."

The final bell rang, Preston and Martin were exiting the building, "So tomorrow at seven they're planning to hang you upside down by your feet by the bleachers."

Preston laughed, "Damn, that creative huh?" he joked, "So wait…" he lost his smile, "What _are _we going to do?" Martin stopped Preston by putting a hand on his shoulder, he liked the smirk Martin on his face, it was his 'I have an idea' smirk he had before. He patted his back and laughed, unable to wait of what he had in store.

Cary was emptying his locker, he had it moved all the way to the other side of the building (not by choice) and was shoving everything to his bag, not looking forward to lugging everything including seven pounds of fireworks home and then back. He slung it over his shoulder struggling to keep an upright position and slammed his locker door, to find Richard standing there, he didn't gasp, becoming used to it,

"What do you want?" he asked calmly. He just wanted to get their last exchange of words over with but then he looked down…

There was a small knife in Richard's hand.


	8. Facing Reality

**BeautifulyBlue:** **I hope you guys are ready…short chapter…but some good stuff ( ;**

Alice, Louis and Joe sat on the couch inside the woman's little office. The rehab center highly reminded Joe of a therapist's office. Psychology books on the little shelves, a window with a little view and one of those cheap plastic flower vases one could buy at a home department store, and to complete it, a stereotypical _Mrs. Robinson _type of woman at a desk.

They sat there in silence as Joe observed the two. Alice's eyes showed nervous meant and hopefulness at the same time, while Louis's showed intensity. They had the same eyes Joe noticed. Deep sapphire blue. While Alice _possibly _resembled her mother more, there was no doubt she had her father's eyes. He licked his lips, rapidly shaking his leg, a habit he's had since about the 6th grade when he was nervous. He often did it unconsciously and had been trying to stop this habit as it annoyed his friends; once he had a math test he hadn't known about and he shook the back of Charles's desk all hour. Now he was currently bouncing his hand on his knee, tapping the carpet floor with his foot as the woman was reading papers Louis had signed. Their stomachs jumped when she stood up, for some reason they stood up as well.

"Who's the alcoholic?"

Louis lifted his head, "That would be me…miss."

She scanned him up and down, she didn't seem to be surprised it was him, Joe tried to eye Alice who had her head down, holding her hands in front of her waist. She looked on the verge of tears. He tried to make a 'psst' sound to get her attention but it didn't seem to work. The therapist, who for some reason wouldn't introduce herself, walked in front of her,

"And you are his daughter?"

She looked up sucking up her emotions, nodding. She walked up to Joe. The woman was tall…even without the heels she had on she'd be at least a few inches taller than him, she was quite attractive…even the glasses she had on suited her well,

"And are you his son?" he quickly nodded,

"No…but I'm a close…friend?" not really.

She walked back over to her desk, leaning back against it, "Could you please explain to me what brought you here? What's…happened in the past few weeks…months or…years?"

The three stared at each other until Alice took a step forward, "I'll start…" she took a deep breath, the adrenaline already reaching her hands, "It started a few years ago when…my mom left us." she paused…trying to calm herself down. She felt like she was giving a presentation in front of a class. Something she was never good at despite her acting skills…Then again, acting didn't require a grade. "He…started to smoke and…eventually he quit, I was…too young to figure out that that was a good thing but…" she started to speed her words up, "But then he started drinking, day in and day out, just drinks and drinks and…and then he-"

"Ali." she had made him look bad enough by forcing him to go there, she didn't need her to exaggerate the details of their lives, "I'll tell her." Alice lowered her head as Joe looked up at him, suspicious but eager to watch,

"My ex-wifedidn't ruin our lives…I ruined it."

Alice quickly lifted her head, not sure what she had just heard…or if she could believe it,

"Even when she was around I…always relied on the drink to settle my problems. She'd tell me…you know, 'I've got a job, we have a daughter, this isn't the right environment for her' and all that bull crap…" He paused, turning his head to look at Alice, making sure she was listening, "But I kept doing it…" he looked back at the therapist,

"My pig-headedness and…refusal to quit are what got us here today…I mean, praise the lord I didn't die yesterday but…I was hurt worse knowing I had…betrayed my own flesh and blood," Alice was almost in tears again, crossing her arms, "And now that I'm here I…don't want to leave until I know I'm ready." Alice walked up next to her father, Joe smiled a bit, Louis was coming to a finish, "Because…I love my daughter…and I know she's willing to do anything to make sure I get better-" he felt arms wrap around his body, he saw Alice next to him, finally in tears, holding him, pressing her face into his shirt. He rubbed her back,

"I don't want to lose this…" The therapist was touched, as anyone could tell by the current look in her eyes, "So please…help me get better."

Joe was touched, smiling at the scene…if only his dad could hear this…maybe the two would become closer…then he and Alice could become closer.

At the school, Richard had the knife in his hand, despite the few after school clubs that were going on, the two were alone in the hallways. Cary could see the knife…he knew Richard wasn't trying to hide it…he _wanted _him to see it, he felt a chill travel through his body as he gripped the strap of his bag trying to stay calm,

"W-wha-what's that?"

"We both know your not stupid."

Cary took a few heavy steps away from him (as he didn't have the thought to sprint out of the building), "Ok…" he could hear his voice shaking…he hated it, he felt so weak when he was scared…so stupid, "_Why _do you have it?"

"Because I take hunting classes, WHAT DO YOU THINK DIPSHIT?"

Cary jumped back, he was caught off guard by the violence in his tone…he desperately _wanted _to be a zombie at that point. Give _him _the scare. But he was Cary Scott, and Cary Scott does _not _let anyone mess with him or his family, he remained where he was,

"Go away…you know what'll happen, you'll rot in prison."

"Don't you think they've tried that already…I've stabbed someone before."

Cary stepped forward "I SAID GET BACK!", he suddenly had him, Cary took a few breaths trying to slow his heart beat, "GET THE FUCK BACK!" He knew he'd be dead in a matter of minutes but he'd rather die knowing he went down the brave way instead of backing up into a corner and taking it,

"Cary?" he heard Charles's voice from behind him, he looked, he was at the end of the hallway, he didn't have time to ask why he was still at school but he saw Charles's expression change from curious to a sudden panic, he turned around and suddenly he was lifted up by the neck of his shirt, fury in Richard's eyes, Cary squirmed violently to get him off, he started screaming,

"DON'T! NO! STOP!"

Charles knew what was happening, he threw his bag off and began to run down the hall, "CARY!"

Richard threw Cary down like a toy against a locker and right as Charles could grab him, Richard showed him the knife…an inch away from his face, "Go home…you never saw me."

Cary was trying to keep from going into shock as Charles was getting angry. When Charles was angry…he was _angry_, "Leave him alone!…He didn't do _anything _wrong!"

"YOU LITTLE SHIT HE DID _EVERYTHING _WRONG!" He screamed, it echoed down the halls…hopefully enough maybe someone would hear…they would take him away and he'd be out of there lives forever…but there were no signs of anyone showing up, but in this case, there was no time for hope,

"You want to know what my problem is, well I'll tell you!" Charles looked at him full of anger as Cary was finally calm enough to stop panting, albeit his heart was about to bust his chest open.

"…I have psychosis."

Charles's eyes widened as Cary just looked, "I tend to believe things that…aren't really true and…I always, always, **always **have this urge to kill!" he yelled, mashing his words together and violently talking with his hands as Charles avoided the knife,

"That's why I'm not supposed to socialize with people, I-I-I…I get too close…start to become possessive and…once I get mad at them it's over."

"So that's why Sonia-" Charles blabbed…he slapped a hand over his own mouth, Richard looked at him with interest as Cary seemed to be paralyzed with fear still,

Richard smirked…"Sonia Robinson…"

Charles and Cary exchanged looks of fear as he continued, "She was always teasing me, acting like she hated me…unfortunately she didn't get what she deserved…" he looked down at Cary, "And _you_," he leaned down at him, making Cary flinch back a little, "You act like your so smart, you know _everything _about me when…you don't know a thing." He and Cary were now nose to nose,

"Richard!" Charles called trying to sound threatening…he didn't want to endure the wrath of his knife as he cracked his knuckles to ease his fright, Richard held a hand up and shushed him,

"Go ahead…say something smart."

Cary was shaking again, a steam hammer in his chest, stuttering his words, "W-what do you want me to say?" his voice cracked…the one thing he hated the most.

"ANYTHING!"

Cary finally pulled himself up, looking at him in the eyes, "You…your nuts in the head…" he hated the smug look he had on his face, it mocked him, "And…the bugs…you said you always have the urge to kill so…you kill bugs so you don't kill people-"

"Ding ding ding!" that just mocked Cary even more. He gave Richard his 'cold stare' when suddenly another voice from down the hall yelled out,

"Richard!"

The three turned their heads, Sonia. Richard's eyes suddenly met heaven as his grip on the knife loosened, "Sonia?"

She took slow steps towards the three, a stern look on her face, "What are you doing back?" her black knee length boots made clacking noises with each slow step, "You remember what happened last year didn't you?" she tried to act like she didn't know he had been back…she couldn't blow those guys cover (despite they already had). She was finally in front of Richard, looking at him with concern with her deep brown eyes,

She hugged him. Arms tightly grasping onto the back of his shirt…he smiled as he slowly held her, burying his face into her shoulder, Cary made a look of disgust as Charles was confused, they could hear Richard's voice,

"You forgive me?"

"Yes…yes o-of course I forgive you," then they saw what was going on…Sonia was waving a hand at them…a gesture telling them to _run_. They slowly backed away as they started to pace towards the exit,

Richard lifted his head, he went to look at the knife when he could see the reflection of two figure running off,

"What the hell IS THIS?" He threw Sonia off and into the lockers, as he chased after them,

He was right behind Cary…he was well in reach. Both to grab or to stab…It would be over in seconds, they were so close to the door…even if they fell down the steps they'd be out of the death trap….Cary made slipped on the tile floor and stumbled,

It was either Charles grabbed him and they ran or Richard grabbed him…suddenly Sonia grabbed Richard's shirt, whirling him around, she grabbed the wrist of the hand that had the knife in his had,

"STOP!"

Suddenly she heard the sound of a shirt tearing…just a quick rip sound that lasted half a second. Cary turned around…feeling nor _hearing _nothing but the sound of his head and heart pounding…Charles couldn't see what happened…but the shock of Sonia's face wasn't giving him a good sign…

The world stopped around her as she slowly looked downward…her hand was still clenched onto his wrist…the way she had turned his hand…

Richard had stabbed himself.

She let out either a weak whimper, or the most nervous laugh in the history of nervous laughter, she backed away, trying to let go…some blood on her finger tips…she was shaking violently. Cary slowly clenched his hair…going into his panicked state again as Charles was left with no reaction (as he didn't know _how_ to react).

She was finally far enough as her arm was extended all the way and she felt shocked tears in her eyes as she looked at his face one last time…a single tear fell from his eye as he was gritting his teeth most likely from the pain…his eyes were wide open.

She let go as he fell to the floor. The sickening thud made Sonia's knees crumple as she fell onto her bottom scooting herself away from the body. The two ran over kneeling next to her, Cary tried to get her to look at him,

"Are you ok?"

She nodded a yes but she was _not _ok…if one were to count shaking, face white and eyes unable to blink as 'ok'. She swallowed,

"Are you ok?"

Charles let out a few tears he had been wanting to let go, "We're fine."

The three looked at the body…What the hell were they supposed to do now?


	9. Happy Endings

Alice and Joe exited the building, Alice still not focusing on reality as she was being drowned by her thoughts of 'What now? What next? What this? What that?' Louis would be in their for a while, learning techniques on how to stop himself from drinking. Alice didn't mind being home alone. She was usually content with it. But she still couldn't get him off of her mind. Joe grabbed his bike, noticing the thousand-yard stare she had on,

"You know for what it's worth…I'm really proud of you."

She looked at the ground…as if something was written on it,

"Alice?"

Another second and she brought her attention to Joe, "What?"

"I said I'm really proud of you…for going through all this."

Alice smirked, resting her elbows on her bike handles, "I think I've had enough…'adventures' for one year…" she looked over at Joe smiling, showing him she was joking. He snickered.

Then of course the awkward silence came. That silence when a conversation had come to an end and neither person knew what to talk about next, they both gazed at the road watching cars pass by. Joe scratched the back of his head and Alice twirled her hair on her index finger as they listened to the sound of early afternoon traffic…still silent.

"Uh…" Joe uttered, "Should we go home?"

Alice was about to respond when suddenly they heard the blaring sirens from down the road. About 3 police cars followed by an ambulance zipped past them like bullets as their heads rapidly turned towards its direction.

"What the hell was that?" Alice yelled, swearing unlike her usual self.

"I don't know…" he winced, trying to see if he could find them, now far ahead, they turned.

"Shit…I think that's the way to the school." he pedaled off, not completely sure, but didn't want to take any risks. Alice followed behind him.

Preston was at Martin's house. He was currently drawing a birds eye view of the football field of their school,

"He said the north set of bleachers right?"

"Yup,", Martin circled the set and capped up his pen, "They're planning to lure you down in that little…gate area underneath them and hang you there upside down and possibly throw snow cones at you." he added raising a finger, Preston rolled his eyes,

"The joy…"

"But wait…that's not going to happen." he began making marks on the piece of paper, "Because we are going to enter from…here, they won't see us, and we are going to sneak up the bleachers, find a clearing where we're right above them and…" he paused on and, grabbing something from out of his cooler, two cans of soda. He shook them up for emphasis on his plan, Preston laughed out _loud_. Martin joined in,

"You see? Hanging around with them gave me a little mischief back."

Preston wiped a tear, "Ok…just promise me it's caffeine free." Martin raised a brow, "Come on, I'm joking." he took a can from him, "For now…a toast to our life long friendship." They bumped cans, the sun was beginning to set, it was about 5 P.M. their plan was set at 7:15. They weren't planning to open the cans but they stared at each other wide eyed as they slowly lowered their cans…

At the same time the two pried the latches off, soaking each other and Martin's carpet with diet Pepsi. Martin spit some out,

"I guess I deserved that." he took off his glasses, wiping them with his soda drenched shirt, Preston rubbed his eyes,

"Kinda…" he smiled.

Alice and Joe were at the school, he was right, police taping up the entrance as they were carrying _someone _out on a stretcher, he didn't know who. He saw Sonia (not knowing who she was) with her parents talking to a cop…then Charles and Cary sitting on the hood of a cop car. He threw his bike down darting towards the two,

"Guys!" Alice followed, they didn't notice the two until he was right next to them,

Cary stood up, "Joe!"

"What happened?" Alice demanded.

Charles stood as well, "This kid had a knife."

Alice put a hand over her mouth, clueless on what to say as Joe's eyes was answer enough for Charles to continue,

"He…committed suicide."

Their eyes widened even more, Cary didn't respond, letting Charles continue with his half-lie,

"We were still in the building when that girl over there found him so they kept us here."

Cary had to act casual, otherwise they'd know, "Police stuff."

Joe believed them…albeit Cary's shaking hands in his folded arms, making him question them a bit. Cary saw Joe staring at him,

"I'm gonna go ask if we can leave now." he walked off towards the man taping the entrance.

Joe looked up at Charles, "Is he ok?"

"Y-yeah…it was just a bad sight is all."

He knew Charles's guilty look anywhere. Knowing him for nearly 10 years made him the expert of Charles Kusack. But they were ok he thought. Nothing else truly mattered. They weren't killers…they were ok. He sighed in relief, the tension drained,

"Ok…I was just making sure." Charles smiled and Alice walked up,

"Who was it?"

"We don't know."

She raised a brow, "No one in your class?"

He started to get paranoid, "No why?" Even in his voice there was high tension, Alice backed up a little,

"Jeez, I was just wondering…you guys have lived here longer than me I just wondered if it might've been someone you knew."

"Well it wasn't." his voice cracked, Cary showed up at the perfect time,

"Guard says we can leave."

Joe started to turn towards the direction of his bike, "Ok, you guys go get your stuff and maybe we'll still meet up for the bonfire?"

They side-smiled and nodded as they went over the bike racks. Alice tapped his shoulder,

"Joe?…Could you take me home first?"

His smile faded, "…Your not coming?"

"No…I've…been though a lot."

The disappointment was more of anger than sadness, Joe nodded trying to keep his cool but let it out, "Ok…but can I just say one thing?" He pointed over at the entrance, "Look at what just happened to Charles and Cary, they're still going to have fun. A-and…after the whole alien thing-"

"Shh!"

"We still went to the film festival and had fun! Didn't you say you went to Sanibel with your dad right after the…thing?"

"Well, yeah." she crossed her arms, giving him a stern face,

"Didn't you forget about it for a while and still have fun?"

"Joe this is different-"

"So maybe it's not _completely _the same but…you can't revolve your whole life around one bad thing that happened to you."

Alice's jaw dropped a little as if to say something, but instead she bit the corner of her lower lip, Joe walked past her,

"Here, I'll take you home."

She stood there, she seemed to be staring at her shoes while Joe stood his bike up, he noticed her,

"Alice?" she peeked over her shoulder, "You coming?"

She turned away, strangely, yet again, feeling tears, "Yup."

Cary and Charles unhooked their bikes Charles glanced at Cary for about the third time,

"You ok?"

Cary rolled his bike out of it's rack, "Never better." he replied, leaving Charles unable to tell if he was being sarcastic or not. They turned around to find Sonia standing over them. Dark skin under her eyes, showing how tired she was or how hard she had been crying earlier,

Charles let go of the chain on his bike, "You ok?"

She walked over and knelt down, hugging them both in her arms. The two were confused but they each put a hand on her back,

"Thank you." She pulled back, they were shocked to see she was actually smiling for the first time since they met her. She then gave them each a kiss on the cheek. The tall Goth then turned and walked over to her parents' car.

The two were tranced for a minute as smiles formed, they rolled their bikes down the path to their neighborhood,

"Cary?"

"Charles?"

"…This is gonna be a good year."

-X-

It was now twilight as the players at the football field not too far from the school campus itself stood in line listening for their coaches orders. David and the others were waiting expectantly for Martin and his 'friend' under the bleachers. Laughing and smoking cigars as no of the administrators who were there didn't seem to notice (or just didn't care). Martin and Preston slowly walked up the sets of bleachers step by step, full soda cans in each hand, they peeked through the openings in between the seats to see which one would be prefect.

"So do you think the dip wads are gonna show?"

David had a cigar hanging from his lip, he shrugged, "They should…Martin hasn't turned down a thing I say _yet_."

They were right above them, shaking the cans.

"You really fond of that kid?"

He laughed, "Hell no. Messing with their lives is about the best revenge I've ever had."

The two gave each other a 'ready' expression, they aimed with their fingers on the latches.

"And after tonight, my work will be done."

Preston called, "HEY CYBER DORK!"

He jumped a little, not because he hadn't heard that nickname in three years but he didn't know where to look. After watching them like guinea pigs squirm around, Martin spoke,

"How's this for cool?"

They ripped off the latches, soda spurted out and all over David and his mates. They listened as they swore, struggled to open up the fence and shout threats. Preston waved his can around erratically in every direction below making sure he struck them all. They dropped the cans and _ran_.

David finally opened up the latch, "YOUR DEAD MEAT!"

Martin and Preston were already near the exit as they looked back, they laughed and knuckle punched just before hopping the fence and escaping.

At Joe's house, his dad had just left right before Cary and Charles showed up with the fire wood and matches, and much to no one's surprise, Cary brought at least twenty sparklers. They walked into the backyard, Joe's dog tried to follow but he didn't want her near the fire, he gently blocked her with his foot,

"Stay inside Lucy." he closed the sliding door.

"Dude where do you even get all this stuff?"

Cary smirked, "My brother knows a guy."

"Ok…where do you _stor_e all this stuff?"

Cary lifted his head from the logs, his eyes wandered around the dark yard "…that's classified." Joe laughed as Charles continued to interrogate him. Over the fence, Preston and Martin climbed over with six packs of Pepsi's in their arms.

"The fun has arrived!" Martin called as the two walked over to the fire taking two sodas for themselves. Cary had already lit two sparklers and had them hand in hand as he tempted to grab a can with his remaining pinky. The four stared, Joe walked up,

"Cary?"

He looked at him, "Yeah?"

"It's not possible." the four laughed as Cary gave up on the soda.

Someone was in the house, he heard a knock on the sliding door, no one except for Joe heard it as he turned around, expecting it to be Lucy picking at the latch…Alice. He was too shocked to question how she got inside and walked into his house, shutting the door behind him,

"Alice, why are you he-"

"I wanted to tell you I'm sorry."

He winced in confusion.

"I shouldn't…let my dad being in rehab ruin _all _my fun should I?"

Joe felt a smile that he couldn't hold back coming on,

"So…bonfire?"

He smiled, "Yup. We literally just started."

"Good!" She dragged over her bag she had brought showing a few things she had inside, an un-opened box of graham crackers, two packs of marshmallows and about eight chocolate bars.

He laughed even more.

"What's a bonfire without s'mores?" she playfully asked.

She picked up her bag ready to go outside until Joe halted her,

"Wait…how'd you get inside?"

She smirked, looking down somewhat embarrassed, "You keep the key under your mat."

Joe gritted his teeth in a sudden 'oh' feeling as she walked outside with the bag. He watched her as he listened to Cary flip out,

"OH MY GOD!"

Preston grabbed Cary's shoulder, "NO NO! ALICE DO _NOT _GIVE HIM SUGAR!"

Alice threw the bag to Charles, "Hot potato!" she never got to be this playful around anyone else she knew, Cary proceeded to chase Charles around the bonfire for the candy bars as Preston tried to grab Cary,

"C'MON! JUST ONE!"

"HELL NO! REMEMBER THE COFFEE SHOP?"

"IT WASN'T _MY _FAULT THEY DIDN'T GIVE ME DECAF!"

Alice sat down next to Martin who was reading a comic book he always kept with him, interested in the book, laughing at the three every now and then.

Joe smiled…not even conscious of the fact he was doing so.

_This _is what it meant to have friends like them…ones who weren't afraid to be stupid every once in a while. Something his dad didn't necessarily care for. Then at the same time, people who cared about each other, and had each other's backs no matter what went on. He was surprised that the three were still running in circles as he ran outside,

"Bad Cary! Bad!" he played, grabbing him by his jacket, but Cary _wanted _it. He was able to yank his grip off as now four were trying to get the bag, Charles threw it to Joe, who tried to throw it to Preston but Cary grabbed it,

"HA!"

"Damn it…"

Cary looked into the bag, holding a candy bar up, then dropping it back inside and handing it to Preston, "Here Preston." He sat down lighting another sparkler,

"Wait…what was all that about?"

"I wanted it but I didn't know they had almonds in it."

The three stared at Cary…

**The End**

**BeautifulyBlue: Suckish ending, but oh well. I have plenty more! So eh? Ehh? What did you think?**


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